Preservation of information related to genomic DNA methylation

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to compositions, methods and systems for analyzing the methylation state of nucleic acids. Some embodiments relate to a compositions, methods and systems for analyzing the methylation state of DNA with a gene array.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/125,419filed on Apr. 21, 2011, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,541,207, which is a 35U.S.C. §371 application of PCT International Application No.PCT/US09/061552 filed Oct. 21, 2009, which claims priority under 35U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/107,457,filed Oct. 22, 2008 each of which is incorporated herein by reference inits entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to the fields of biology and genomics.More specifically, the present invention relates to compositions,methods and systems for analyzing the methylation state of nucleicacids.

2. Description of the Related Art

Biomolecule methylation, such as DNA methylation is widespread and playsa critical role in the regulation of gene expression in development,differentiation and disease. Methylation in particular regions of genes,for example their promoter regions, can inhibit the expression of thesegenes. Recent work has shown that the gene silencing effect ofmethylated regions is accomplished through the interaction ofmethylcytosine binding proteins with other structural components of thechromatin, which, in turn, makes the DNA inaccessible to transcriptionfactors through histone deacetylation and chromatin structure changes.Genomic imprinting in which imprinted genes are preferentially expressedfrom either the maternal or paternal allele also involves DNAmethylation. Deregulation of imprinting has been implicated in severaldevelopmental disorders.

In vertebrates, the DNA methylation pattern is established early inembryonic development and in general the distribution of5-methylcytosine (5 mC) along the chromosome is maintained during thelife span of the organism. Stable transcriptional silencing is criticalfor normal development, and is associated with several epigeneticmodifications. If methylation patterns are not properly established ormaintained, various disorders like mental retardation, immune deficiencyand sporadic or inherited cancers may follow. The study of methylationis particularly pertinent to cancer research as molecular alterationsduring malignancy may result from a local hypermethylation of tumorsuppressor genes, along with a genome wide demethylation.

The initiation and the maintenance of the inactive X-chromosome infemale eutherians were found to depend on methylation. Rett syndrome(RTT) is an X-linked dominant disease caused by mutation of MeCP2 gene,which is further complicated by X-chromosome inactivation (XCI) pattern.The current model predicts that MeCP2 represses transcription by bindingmethylated CpG residues and mediating chromatin remodeling.

DNA methylation pattern changes at certain genes often alter theirexpression, which could lead to cancer metastasis, for example. Thus,studies of methylation pattern in selected, staged tumor samplescompared to matched normal tissues from the same patient offers a novelapproach to identify unique molecular markers for cancer classification.Monitoring global changes in methylation pattern has been applied tomolecular classification in breast cancer. In addition, many studieshave identified a few specific methylation patterns in tumor suppressorgenes (for example, p16, a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor) in certainhuman cancer types.

Restriction landmark genomic scanning (RLGS) profiling of methylationpattern of 1184 CpG islands in 98 primary human tumors revealed that thetotal number of methylated sites is variable between and in some caseswithin different tumor types, suggesting there may be methylationsubtypes within tumors having similar histology. Aberrant methylation ofa proportion of these genes correlates with loss of gene expression.

Since genomic DNA is often the target of methylation analyses, it offersadvantages in both the availability of the source materials and ease ofperforming such analyses. Also, methylation analyses of genomic DNA canbe complementary to those used for RNA-based gene expression profiling.

Accordingly, there is a need for improved methods of determining themethylation status of DNA. The compositions, methods and systemsdescribed herein satisfy this need and provide other advantages as well.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A method of sequencing nucleic acid comprising cytosine is provided. Themethod can include the steps of providing a sample comprising a templatenucleic acid; generating a complementary copy of the template nucleicacid, wherein the generating produces a complementary copy of thetemplate nucleic acid such that cytosine residues in the complementarycopy are conversion resistant cytosine analogs comprising a moiety thatinhibits conversion to another base residue; subjecting the templatenucleic acid and the complementary copy to conversion treatment toconvert cytosine residues in the template nucleic acid into residuescomprising the other base, resulting in a converted template nucleicacid and a non-converted complementary copy; and determining thenucleotide sequence of the converted template nucleic acid and thenon-converted complementary copy. In certain aspects, the generating isdirected by an oligonucleotide primer using a nucleic acid polymerase inthe presence of a cytosine analog that comprises a moiety that inhibitsconversion to the other base residue. In certain aspects, the methodfurther comprises comparing the nucleotide sequence of the non-convertedcomplementary copy to the nucleotide sequence of the converted templatenucleic acid, thereby obtaining the nucleotide sequence of the templateprior to conversion.

A method of sequencing nucleic acid comprising deaminated cytosine isprovided. The method can include the steps of providing a samplecomprising a template nucleic acid; generating a complementary copy ofthe template nucleic acid, the generating being directed by anoligonucleotide primer using a nucleic acid polymerase in the presenceof a bisulfite-resistant cytosine analog, wherein the generatingproduces a complementary copy of the template nucleic acid such thatcytosine residues in the complementary copy are methylated; subjectingthe template nucleic acid and the complementary copy to bisulfatetreatment to convert unmethylated cytosine residues in the templatenucleic acid into uracil residues, resulting in a bisulfite-convertedtemplate nucleic acid and a non-converted complementary copy; anddetermining the nucleotide sequence of the bisulfite-converted templatenucleic acid and the non-converted complementary copy. In certainaspects, the method further comprises comparing the nucleotide sequenceof the non-converted complementary copy to the nucleotide sequence ofthe bisulfite-converted template nucleic acid, thereby obtaining thenucleotide sequence of the template prior to bisulfite conversion.

A method of identifying methylated cytosines in DNA is also provided.The method can include the steps of obtaining bisulfite-convertedtemplate nucleic acid comprising at least one uracil residue; obtaininga non-converted complementary copy of the template nucleic acid;determining the nucleotide sequence of the bisulfite-converted templatenucleic acid; determining the nucleotide sequence of the non-convertedcomplementary copy of the template nucleic acid; comparing thenucleotide sequence of the non-converted complementary copy of thetemplate nucleic acid to the bisulfite-converted template nucleic acid,thereby determining the nucleotide sequence and the methylation statusof the template nucleic acid prior to bisulfite conversion.

In certain aspects, the method further comprises comparing thenucleotide sequence of the non-converted complementary copy of thetemplate nucleic acid to a sequence in a database. In certain aspects,the method further comprises comparing the nucleotide sequence of thebisulfite-converted template nucleic acid to a sequence in a database.

In certain aspects of the above embodiments, the template nucleic acidis DNA. In certain aspects, the cytosine analog, for example, abisulfite-resistant cytosine analog, is capable of incorporation intonucleic acid by a nucleic acid polymerase. For example, thebisulfite-resistant cytosine analog can be selected from the groupconsisting of: 5-ethyl dCTP, 5-methyl dCTP, 5-fluoro dCTP, 5-bromo dCTP,5-iodo dCTP, 5-chloro dCTP, 5-trifluoromethyl dCTP, 5-aza dCTP, as wellas other bisulfite-resistant nucleotides comprising a cytosine analog.In certain aspects, the bisulfite-resistant cytosine analog is 5-methyldCTP. In certain aspects, the template nucleic acid is double-stranded.In other aspects, the template nucleic acid is single-stranded. Incertain aspects, the oligonucleotide primer is capable of forming ahairpin loop. In some aspects, the complementary copy is covalentlycoupled to the template nucleic acid. In such aspects, theoligonucleotide primer may be ligated to the template nucleic acid priorto the generating step.

In certain aspects, the above methods can further comprise the step ofpairing the non-converted complementary copy and said converted templatenucleic acid. In certain aspects, pairing is accomplished via a physicaltether between the complementary copy and the converted template nucleicacid. In other certain aspects, pairing is accomplished via tagmolecules which identify the complementary copy and the convertedtemplate nucleic acid as members of a nucleic acid pair.

In some compositions, methods and systems described herein, theoligonucleotide primer comprises sequence complementary to a sequencingprimer. In some aspects, a second oligonucleotide primer is ligated tothe complementary copy prior to conversion treatment, such as bisulfiteconversion. The second oligonucleotide primer can comprise sequencecomplementary to, for example, a sequencing primer or a capture probe.In some aspects, the oligonucleotide primer is covalently coupled to thecomplementary copy but not to the template nucleic acid prior toconversion treatment, such as bisulfite conversion. In some suchaspects, the template nucleic acid is covalently coupled to a partneroligonucleotide, where the oligonucleotide primer and the partneroligonucleotide comprise a unique tag sufficient to identify thetemplate nucleic acid and the complementary copy.

Also provided herein is a method of identifying methylated cytosines ina plurality of nucleic acids. The method can include the steps of:providing a sample comprising a plurality of template nucleic acids;generating complementary copies of the template nucleic acids, whereinthe generating produces a complementary copy of the template nucleicacid such that cytosine residues in the complementary copy areconversion resistant cytosine analogs comprising a moiety that inhibitsconversion to an other base residue, and wherein each complementary copyis coupled to one of the template nucleic acids; subjecting the templatenucleic acids and the complementary copies to conversion treatment toconvert cytosine residues in the template nucleic acids into residuescomprising the other base, resulting in each converted template nucleicacid being coupled to a non-converted complementary copy; determiningthe nucleotide sequence of the converted template nucleic acids and thenon-converted complementary copies; and comparing the nucleotidesequence of the converted template nucleic acids to the nucleotidesequence of the non-converted complementary copies for each of theconverted template nucleic acids coupled to non-converted complementarycopies, thereby determining the methylation status of the templatenucleic acids prior to conversion.

In particular embodiments, the method of identifying methylatedcytosines in a plurality of nucleic acids can include the steps of:providing a sample comprising a plurality of template nucleic acids;generating complementary copies of the template nucleic acids, thegenerating being directed by an oligonucleotide primer using a nucleicacid polymerase in the presence of a bisulfite-resistant cytosineanalog, wherein the generating produces a complementary copy of each ofthe template nucleic acids such that cytosine residues in eachcomplementary copy are methylated, and wherein each complementary copyis coupled to one of the template nucleic acids; subjecting the templatenucleic acids and the complementary copies to bisulfite treatment toconvert unmethylated cytosine residues in the template nucleic acidsinto uracil residues, resulting in each bisulfite-converted templatenucleic acid being coupled to a non-converted complementary copy;determining the nucleotide sequence of the bisulfite-converted templatenucleic acids and the non-converted complementary copies; and comparingthe nucleotide sequence of the bisulfite-converted template nucleicacids to the nucleotide sequence of the non-converted complementarycopies for each of the bisulfite-converted template nucleic acidscoupled to non-converted complementary copies, thereby determining themethylation status of the template nucleic acids prior to bisulfiteconversion.

In certain aspects of the above embodiment, the plurality of nucleicacids can comprise greater than 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000, 100,000 orgreater than 1,000,000 nucleic acids having different sequences. In someembodiments, nucleic acids having the same or similar sequences can bepresent in the plurality of nucleic acids. In some embodiments, thesimilar sequences has a single base mismatch. In other embodiments,similar sequences have multiple base mismatches. In certain aspects ofthe above-described methods, the templates comprise a universal primingsite and the same oligonucleotide primer sequence is used to generatecomplementary copies of the template nucleic acids.

In certain aspects, the template nucleic acids are DNA. In certainaspects, the cytosine analog, for example, a bisulfite-resistantcytosine analog, is capable of incorporation into nucleic acid by anucleic acid polymerase. In certain aspects, the bisulfite-resistantcytosine analog is selected from the group consisting of: 5-ethyl dCTP,5-methyl dCTP, 5-fluoro dCTP, 5-bromo dCTP, 5-iodo dCTP, 5-chloro dCTP,5-trifluoromethyl dCTP, 5-aza dCTP, as well as other bisulfite-resistantnucleotides comprising a cytosine analog. In certain aspects, thebisulfite-resistant cytosine analog is 5-methy dCTP. In certain aspects,the template nucleic acids are double-stranded. In certain aspects, thetemplate nucleic acids are single-stranded.

In certain aspects, the oligonucleotide primer is capable of forming ahairpin loop. In certain aspects, the complementary copies arecovalently coupled to the different template nucleic acids. In certainaspects, the oligonucleotide primer is ligated to the template nucleicacid prior to the generating step. In certain aspects, theoligonucleotide primer comprises sequence complementary to a sequencingprimer.

In certain aspects, the method further comprises the step of ligating asecond oligonucleotide primer to each of the complementary copies priorto conversion treatment. In certain aspects, the second oligonucleotideprimer comprises sequence complementary to, for example, a sequencingprimer or a capture probe. In certain aspects, each oligonucleotideprimer is covalently coupled to each complementary copy prior toconversion treatment, but not to each template nucleic acids. In certainaspects, each template nucleic acid is covalently coupled to a partneroligonucleotide, the oligonucleotide primer and the partneroligonucleotide comprising a unique tag sufficient to identify eachtemplate nucleic acid and each complementary copy.

In certain aspects, the method further comprises the step of pairingeach of the non-converted complementary copies with its correspondingconverted template nucleic acid. In certain aspects, the pairing isaccomplished via a physical tether between each complementary copy andeach corresponding converted template nucleic acid. In certain aspects,the pairing is accomplished via tag molecules which identify eachcomplementary copy and each corresponding converted template nucleicacid as members of a nucleic acid pair.

Also provided herein is a nucleic acid pair and vectors comprising thesame. One embodiment is a nucleic acid pair comprising a templatenucleic acid comprising a cytosine residue; a complementary copy of thetemplate nucleic acid having every or nearly every cytosine methylated;and a tag capable of identifying the template nucleic acid and thecomplementary copy of the template nucleic acid as members of thenucleic acid pair, wherein the template nucleic acid and thecomplementary copy of the template nucleic acid are coupled to the tag.

In certain aspects, the template nucleic acid is DNA. In certainaspects, the template nucleic acid is single-stranded. In certainaspects, the template nucleic acid is single-stranded and thecomplementary copy is single-stranded. In certain aspects, thebisulfite-resistant cytosine analog is selected from the groupconsisting of: 5-ethyl dCTP, 5-methyl dCTP, 5-fluoro dCTP, 5-bromo dCTP,5-iodo dCTP, 5-chloro dCTP, 5-trifluoromethyl dCTP, 5-aza dCTP, as wellas other bisulfite-resistant nucleotides comprising a cytosine analog.In certain aspects, the bisulfite-resistant cytosine analog is 5-methyldCTP.

In certain aspects, the tag is a molecule disposed between the templatenucleic acid and the complementary copy. In certain aspects, themolecule comprises an oligonucleotide comprising a hairpin loop. Incertain aspects, the tag comprises a first and second oligonucleotidecomprising an identical nucleotide sequence, wherein the firstoligonucleotide is coupled to the template nucleic acid and the secondoligonucleotide is coupled to the complementary copy. In certainaspects, the tag comprises a first and second oligonucleotide comprisingcomplementary nucleotide sequence, wherein the first oligonucleotide iscoupled to the template nucleic acid and the second oligonucleotide iscoupled to the complementary copy.

Another embodiment is a population of different nucleic acid pairs. Thepopulation can comprise: template nucleic acids and complementary copiesof the template nucleic acids attached to each other as covalent pairsvia a nucleic acid loop, wherein the template nucleic acids eachcomprise at least one cytosine residue, wherein every cytosine of thecomplementary copies replaced by a conversion-resistant cytosine analog;and wherein different nucleic acid pairs in the population havedifferent sequences for the template nucleic acids and the same sequencefor the nucleic acid loop.

In certain aspects, the template nucleic acids are DNA. In certainaspects, the template nucleic acids are single-stranded. In certainaspects, the template nucleic acids are single-stranded and thecomplementary copies are single-stranded. In certain aspects, thebisulfite-resistant cytosine analog is selected from the groupconsisting of: 5-ethyl cytosine, 5-methyl cytosine, 5-fluoro cytosine,5-bromo cytosine, 5-iodo cytosine, 5-chloro cytosine, 5-trifluoromethylcytosine, 5-aza cytosine as well as other bisulfite-resistantnucleotides comprising a cytosine analog. In certain aspects, thebisulfite-resistant cytosine analog is 5-methyl cytosine.

Also presented herein is a method of making an array, comprising thesteps of providing the population of nucleic acid pairs as describedhereinabove; providing a solid support with a plurality of sites; andcoupling the different pairs from the population to the sites, therebyspatially resolving the different pairs from each other.

A method of making an array is also provided. The method can include thesteps of: providing a sample comprising a template nucleic acid;generating a complementary copy of the template nucleic acid, whereinthe generating produces a complementary copy of the template nucleicacid such that cytosine residues in the complementary copy areconversion resistant cytosine analogs comprising a moiety that inhibitsconversion to an other base residue; subjecting the template nucleicacid and the complementary copy to conversion treatment to convertcytosine residues in the template nucleic acid into residues comprisingthe other base, resulting in a converted template nucleic acid and anon-converted complementary copy; and coupling the template and thecomplementary copy of the template to the solid support.

The method of making an array can include the steps of: providing asolid support with a plurality of sites; providing a sample comprising atemplate nucleic acid; generating a complementary copy of the templatenucleic acid, the generating being directed by an oligonucleotide primerusing a nucleic acid polymerase in the presence of a bisulfite-resistantcytosine analog, wherein the generating produces a complementary copy ofthe template nucleic acid such that each cytosine residue in thecomplementary copy is methylated; subjecting the template nucleic acidand the complementary copy to bisulfate treatment to convertunmethylated cytosine residues in the template nucleic acid into uracilresidues, resulting in a bisulfate-converted template nucleic acid and anon-converted complementary copy; and coupling the template and thecomplementary copy of the template to the solid support. In certainaspects of the method, at least one of the sites comprises a captureprobe. In certain aspects, the capture probe comprises a nucleotidesequence complementary to the template or a nucleotide sequencecomplementary to a complementary copy of the template. In other aspects,an oligonucleotide complementary to the capture probe is attached to thetemplate or complementary copy of the template.

In certain embodiments of the above method, the template nucleic acid isDNA. In certain aspects, the conversion-resistant cytosine analog iscapable of incorporation into nucleic acid by a nucleic acid polymerase.For example, the conversion-resistant cytosine analog can be abisulfite-resistant cytosine analog and can be selected from the groupconsisting of: 5-ethyl dCTP, 5-methyl dCTP, 5-fluoro dCTP, 5-bromo dCTP,5-iodo dCTP, 5-chloro dCTP, 5-trifluoromethyl dCTP, 5-aza dCTP, as wellas other bisulfite-resistant nucleotides comprising a cytosine analog.In certain aspects, the bisulfite-resistant cytosine analog is 5-methyldCTP. In certain aspects, the template nucleic acid is double-stranded.In other aspects, the template nucleic acid is single-stranded. Incertain aspects, the oligonucleotide primer is capable of forming ahairpin loop. In some aspects, the complementary copy is covalentlycoupled to the template nucleic acid. In such aspects, theoligonucleotide primer may be ligated to the template nucleic acid priorto the generating step.

Further, in some aspects, the oligonucleotide primer comprises sequencecomplementary to a sequencing primer. In some aspects, the methodfurther comprises the step of ligating a second oligonucleotide primerto the complementary copy prior to conversion treatment. In certainaspects, the second oligonucleotide primer comprises sequencecomplementary to a sequencing primer. In certain aspects, the secondoligonucleotide primer comprises sequence complementary to a captureprobe. In certain aspects, the oligonucleotide primer is covalentlycoupled to the complementary copy prior to conversion treatment, but notto the template nucleic acid. In certain such aspects, the templatenucleic acid is covalently coupled to a partner oligonucleotide, theoligonucleotide primer and the partner oligonucleotide comprising aunique tag sufficient to identify the template nucleic acid and thecomplementary copy.

Some compositions described herein relate to an array comprising: asolid support with a plurality of sites, a converted template nucleicacid; and a non-converted complementary copy of the template nucleicacid; wherein the converted template nucleic acid is coupled to at leastone of the plurality of sites and the non-converted complementary copyis coupled to at least one of the plurality of sites. In some aspects,the converted template nucleic acid and the non-converted complementarycopy are annealed to the same site. In certain aspects, the convertedtemplate nucleic acid is annealed to at least one of the plurality ofsites and the non-converted complementary copy is annealed to at leastone of the plurality of sites. In other aspects, each cytosine residueis replaced by a conversion resistant cytosine analog comprising amoiety that inhibits conversion to an other base residue in thenon-converted complementary copy of the template nucleic acid. Inparticular embodiments, the converted template nucleic acid is abisulfite-converted template nucleic acid and the conversion resistantcytosine analog is a boisulfite-resistant cytosine analog. For example,the bisulfite-resistant cytosine analog can be selected from the groupconsisting of: 5-ethyl cytosine, 5-methyl cytosine, 5-fluoro cytosine,5-bromo cytosine, 5-iodo cytosine, 5-chloro cytosine, 5-trifluoromethylcytosine, 5-aza cytosine, as well as other bisulfite-resistantnucleotides comprising a cytosine analog. In certain aspects, thebisulfite-resistant cytosine analog is 5-methyl cytosine. In certainaspects, each unmethylated cytosine residue in the bisulfite-convertedtemplate nucleic acid has been converted into a uracil residue.

In still other aspects described herein, at least one of the sitescomprises a capture probe. In certain aspects, the capture probecomprises a nucleotide sequence complementary to the template nucleicacid or a nucleotide sequence complementary to the complementary copy ofthe template nucleic acid. In certain aspects, an oligonucleotidecomplementary to the capture probe is attached to the template orcomplementary copy of the template.

In some of the above-described embodiments, the complementary copy iscovalently coupled to the template nucleic acid. In such aspects, amolecule can be disposed between the template nucleic acid and thecomplementary copy of the template nucleic acid. In certain aspects, themolecule is an intervening oligonucleotide. In some aspects, theintervening oligonucleotide is capable of forming a hairpin loop. Incertain aspects, the intervening oligonucleotide comprises sequencecomplementary to a sequencing primer. In certain aspects, an additionaloligonucleotide is covalently coupled to the complementary copy. Theadditional oligonucleotide can comprise sequence complementary to asequencing primer, or to a capture probe, for example.

In other embodiments, a method of identifying methylated cytosines in anucleic acid is also provided. The method can include the steps ofobtaining a template nucleic acid comprising at least a first methyl CpGdinucleotide, obtaining a complementary copy of the template nucleicacid, wherein the complementary copy comprises a complementary methylCpG dinucleotide in a position opposite the first methyl CpGdinucleotide, subjecting the template nucleic acid and the complementarycopy to bisulfite treatment to convert unmethylated cytosine residues inthe template nucleic acid into uracil residues, resulting in abisulfite-converted template nucleic acid and a bisulfite-convertedconverted complementary copy; determining the nucleotide sequence of thebisulfite-converted template nucleic acid; determining the nucleotidesequence of the bisulfite-converted complementary copy; and comparingthe nucleotide sequence of the bisulfite-converted complementary copy tothe nucleotide sequence of the bisulfite-converted template nucleicacid, thereby determining the nucleotide sequence of the templatenucleic acid prior to bisulfite conversion and the methylation status ofthe template nucleic acid prior to bisulfite conversion.

In certain aspects of the above embodiment, the method further comprisespairing the bisulfite-converted complementary copy and thebisulfite-converted template nucleic acid. In certain aspects, thepairing is accomplished via a physical tether between the complementarycopy and the bisulfite-converted template nucleic acid. In otheraspects, the pairing is accomplished via tag molecules which identifythe bisulfite-converted complementary copy and the bisulfite-convertedtemplate nucleic acid as members of a nucleic acid pair.

In certain embodiments where a physical tether is employed, the physicaltether can comprise an oligonucleotide primer capable of forming ahairpin loop. In certain aspects, the oligonucleotide primer is ligatedto the template nucleic acid and to the complementary copy prior to thesubjecting step. In certain aspects, the oligonucleotide primer cancomprise sequence complementary to, for example, a sequencing primer ora capture probe.

In other aspects, the method further comprises the step of ligating asecond oligonucleotide primer to the complementary copy or to thetemplate nucleic acid prior to bisulfite treatment. In other aspects,the second oligonucleotide primer comprises sequence complementary to,for example a sequencing primer or a capture probe.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A-B are schematic drawings of embodiments of a DNA methylationstatus detection method using a single-stranded template. FIG. 1A showsgeneration of a complementary copy using a looped oligonucleotide. FIG.1B shows generation of a complementary copy using an oligonucleotideprimer with complementarity to a portion of the template strand.

FIG. 2 is a schematic drawing showing generation of a complementary copyusing a double-stranded template. Generation of a complementary copy foreach of the top and bottom template strands is shown.

FIG. 3 is a schematic drawing showing bisulfite conversion andsequencing of methylated complementary copy and of converted templatenucleic acid.

FIGS. 4A-B are schematic drawings showing alignment of sequencesobtained from complementary copy and from converted template nucleicacid. FIG. 4A shows alignment of sequences from the same (single-strand)reaction. FIG. 4B shows alignment of sequences from reactions from topand bottom template strands of a double-stranded template nucleic acid.

FIGS. 5A-B are schematic drawings showing nucleic acid pairs with tags.FIG. 5A shows tags comprising a first and second oligonucleotidecomprising identical nucleotide sequences. FIG. 5B shows tags comprisinga first and second oligonucleotide comprising complementary nucleotidesequences.

FIGS. 6A-B are schematic drawings showing removal and trimming ofrepeats. FIG. 6A shows removal of inverted repeat frombisulfite-converted construct. FIG. 6B shows trimming of repeats using atype III restriction endonuclease.

FIG. 7 is a schematic drawing showing bisulfite conversion andsequencing of both top and bottom strands of a template nucleic acid.Top and bottom strands are linked together using a loopedoligonucleotide. After bisulfite conversion, the hairpin loop isunfolded and a complementary copy is generated. Adapter oligonucleotideson the 5′ and 3′ ends are used for priming sequencing reactions and forcapture using capture probes.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The methylation status of nucleic acids is important information that isuseful in many biological assays and studies. Very often, it is ofparticular interest to identify patterns of methylation at specificregions in the genome. Also, it is often of particular interest toidentify the methylation status of specific CpG dinucleotides.

The methylation level and pattern of a locus in a nucleic acid samplecan be determined using any of a variety of methods capable ofdistinguishing presence or absence of a methyl group on a nucleotidebase of the nucleic acid. In the case of DNA, methylation, when present,typically occurs as 5-methylcytosine (5-mCyt) in CpG dinucleotides.Methylation of CpG dinucleotide sequences or other methylated motifs inDNA can be measured using any of a variety of techniques used in the artfor the analysis of specific CpG dinucleotide methylation status.

A commonly-used method of determining the methylation level and/orpattern of DNA requires methylation status-dependent conversion ofcytosine in order to distinguish between methylated and non methylatedCpG dinucleotide sequences. For example, methylation of CpG dinucleotidesequences can be measured by employing cytosine conversion basedtechnologies, which rely on methylation status-dependent chemicalmodification of CpG sequences within isolated genomic DNA, or fragmentsthereof, followed by DNA sequence analysis. Chemical reagents that areable to distinguish between methylated and non methylated CpGdinucleotide sequences include hydrazine, which cleaves the nucleicacid, and bisulfite treatment. Bisulfite treatment followed by alkalinehydrolysis specifically converts non-methylated cytosine to uracil,leaving 5-methylcytosine unmodified as described by Olek A., NucleicAcids Res. 24:5064-6, 1996 or Frommer et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA89:1827-1831 (1992), each of which is incorporated herein by referencein its entirety. The bisulfite-treated DNA can subsequently be analyzedby conventional molecular techniques, such as PCR amplification,sequencing, and detection comprising oligonucleotide hybridization.Several embodiments of the invention are exemplified below by specificreference to use of bisulfite conversion conditions andbisulfite-resistant cytosine analogs. However, the invention need not belimited to the specific conversion methods or conversion-resistantcytosine analogs as these are provided merely as examples to explainaspects of the invention.

One consequence of bisulfite-mediated deamination of cytosine is thatthe bisulfite treated cytosine is converted to uracil, which reduces thecomplexity of the genome. Specifically, a typical 4-base genome(A,T,C,G) is essentially reduced to a 3-base genome (A,T,G) becauseuracil is read as thymine during downstream analysis techniques such asPCR and sequencing reactions. Thus, the only cytosines present are thosethat were methylated prior to bisulfite conversion. Because thecomplexity of the genome is reduced, standard methods for comparingand/or aligning a bisulfite-converted sequence to the pre-conversiongenome can be cumbersome and in some cases ineffective. For example,problems may arise when aligning converted fragments to the genome,especially when using short sequences. Accordingly, there remains a needfor methods which facilitate identification of the genomic context ofbisulfite converted DNA.

Provided herein are methods and compositions that surprisinglyameliorate problems that arise from the reduced genomic complexity afterbisulfite conversion of nucleic acids. For example, some embodimentsdescribed herein relate to methods of sequencing nucleic acids anddetermining the methylation level and/or pattern of the nucleic acids.Other embodiments relate to nucleic acid pairs, arrays and methods ofmaking arrays useful for determining the methylation level and/orpattern of nucleic acids. Using the methods and/or compositionsdescribed herein, complexity of the target nucleic acids is preserved bykeeping track of complementary strands after the strands have beensubjected to bisulfite conversion of nucleic acids.

In order to preserve complexity of the nucleic acid, some embodiments ofthe present invention relate to a pairing of the bisulfite-convertedsequences of both strands of a double-stranded nucleic acid and usingthe sequence information from both strands to determine the sequenceand/or methylation status of one or both strands prior to bisulfiteconversion.

Other embodiments of the present invention relate to making methylatedcopies of the target nucleic acids prior to bisulfite conversion. Themethylated copies can then be sequenced and compared or aligned to theconverted target nucleic acids. The methods provided herein areparticularly useful in multiplex formats wherein several nucleic acidshaving different sequences and/or different methylation patterns areassayed in a common sample or pool. Thus, the methods set forth hereincan provide the advantage of avoiding the need for separation ofdifferent sequences into separate vessels during one or more steps of amethylation detection assay. For example, as set forth in further detailbelow in regard to particular embodiments, several pairs of nucleicacids can be treated with bisulfite in a common pool and the differencesin methylation status for individual nucleic acids from the pool canthen be determined.

Although many of the methods and compositions disclosed herein areexemplified or described in connection with DNA, it will be appreciatedthat these methods and compositions can be used with or include othernucleic acids. Furthermore, it will be understood that methods andcompositions described in the context single nucleic acid molecules canalso relate to methods and compositions that include or comprise aplurality of the same, similar and/or different nucleic acids. Suchembodiments are often referred to as multiplex embodiments. In thesemultiplex embodiments, the methods are performed using and thecompositions comprise a population of nucleic acids. In someembodiments, the population of nucleic acids may be divided into one ormore sub-populations.

DEFINITIONS

As used herein, reference to determining the methylation status and liketerms refers to at least one or more of the following: 1) determiningthe level or amount of cytosine methylation in a sample, 2) determiningthe position of methylated cytosine residues within a sequence, 3)determining the pattern of methylated cytosine in a sequence, and/or 4)determining the whole sequence including the specific position andidentity of methylated residues in the context of the sequence.

As used herein, “nucleic acid polymerase” or “polymerase” refers to anenzyme that catalyzes the polymerization of nucleoside triphosphates,and encompasses DNA polymerases, RNA polymerases, reverse transcriptasesand the like. Generally, the enzyme will initiate synthesis at the3′-end of the primer annealed to a template sequence, and will proceedin the 5′-direction along the template, and if possessing a 5′ to 3′nuclease activity, it may hydrolyze intervening, annealed probe torelease both labeled and unlabeled probe fragments, until synthesisterminates.

As used herein, the term “DNA polymerase” refers to an enzyme whichcatalyzes the synthesis of DNA. It uses a one strand of the DNA duplexas a template. For example, templates may include, but are not limitedto, single-stranded DNA, partially duplexed DNA and nickeddouble-stranded DNA. The polymerase can generate a new strand fromprimers hybridized to the template. As presented herein, anoligonucleotide primer is used which has a free 3′-OH group. Thepolymerase then copies the template in the 5′ to 3′ direction providedthat sufficient quantities of free nucleotides, such as dATP, dGTP,dCTP, 5-methyl dCTP and dTTP are present. Examples of DNA polymerasesinclude, but are not limited to, E. coli DNA polymerase I, the largeproteolytic fragment of E. coli DNA polymerase I, commonly known as“Klenow” polymerase, “Taq” polymerase, T7 polymerase, Bst DNApolymerase, T4 polymerase, T5 polymerase, reverse transcriptase, exo-BCApolymerase, Thermus thermophilus (Tth) DNA polymerase, Bacillusstearothermophilus DNA polymerase, Thermococcus litoralis DNApolymerase, Thermus aquaticus (Taq) DNA polymerase and Pyrococcusfuriosus (PfU) DNA polymerase.

In embodiments of the present invention, the DNA polymerase copies thetemplate in the 5′ to 3′ direction in the presence of 5-methyl dCTP, orany other suitable nucleotide which is resistant to cytosine conversionsuch as bisulfate conversion.

As used herein, “converted,” when used in reference to a nucleic acid orportion thereof, refers to nucleic acid or a portion thereof which hasbeen treated under conditions sufficient to convert cytosine to anotherbase. As used herein, “bisulfite-converted”, “bisulfite-treated” andlike terms, when used in reference to a nucleic acid or portion thereof,refer to nucleic acid or a portion thereof which has been treated withsodium bisulfite under conditions sufficient to convert cytosine touracil. Thus, for example, in some embodiments, template nucleic acidwill have at least one cytosine residue that is not methylated and whichis converted to uracil by bisulfite treatment. However, the templatenucleic acid need not comprise a non-methylated cytosine, either becauseall cytosines are methylated or because no cytosine residues are presentin the template nucleic acid.

As used herein, “non-converted,” when used in reference to a nucleicacid or portion thereof, refers to a nucleic acid or portion thereofwhere one or more of the cytosines, if present, are not converted toanother base, such as uracil, after conversion treatment, such astreatment with sodium bisulfite. Thus, for example, a non-convertedcomplementary copy is a nucleic acid that comprises one or morebisulfite-resistant cytosine analogs that prevent the conversion ofcytosine to uracil.

As used herein, “conversion-resistant cytosine analog” and like termsrefer to cytosine analogs which, when incorporated into DNA, RNA, orother nucleic acid polymers, are refractory to being changed intoanother base under conditions where cytosine is converted into the otherbase. As used herein, “bisulfite-resistant cytosine analog” and liketerms refer to cytosine analogs which, when incorporated into DNA, RNA,or other nucleic acid polymers, are refractory to deamination caused inreactions with sodium bisulfite. Bisulfite-resistant cytosine analogsare known in the art and can include any cytosine analog with theabove-described property. Thus, for example, 5-ethyl dCTP, 5-methyldCTP, 5-fluoro dCTP, 5-bromo dCTP, 5-iodo dCTP, 5-chloro dCTP,5-trifluoromethyl dCTP, 5-aza dCTP, or any other bisulfite-resistantnucleotides comprising a cytosine analog can be used in the presentembodiments as bisulfite-resistant cytosine analogs. Typically, thebisulfite-resistant cytosine analog is 5-methyl dCTP. Although 5-methyldCTP and 5-methylcytosine are referred to in the description, examplesand figures, it will be readily understood that any suitablebisulfite-resistant cytosine analog can be used in such embodiments.

In some embodiments, “cytosine” refers to nucleotides, nucleosides,nucleotide triphospates and the like which include cytosine (i.e.,4-amino-3H-pyrimidin-2-one) as the base. Thus, for example, whereembodiments describe replacing cytosine with a bisulfite-resistantcytosine analog such as 5-methyl cytosine, it will be understood thatthe term cytosine does not include cytosine residues that are methylatedat the 5-position of the cytosine base, unless specifically indicated tothe contrary. In some embodiments, the term cytosine can refer to a basestructure that is common between cytosine and cytosine analogs,including bisulfite-resistant cytosine analogs, as described in detailherein.

In some embodiments, 5-methyl dCTP replaces all cytosines thatcomplement guanine positions in a complementary copy. In someembodiments, 5-methyl dCTP replaces at least one cytosine thatcomplements a guanine position in the complementary copy. In otherembodiments, 5-methyl dCTP replaces at least 99%, 98%, 97%, 96%, 95%,94%, 93%, 92%, 91%, 90%, 85%, 80%, 75%, 70%, 65%, 60%, 55%, 50%, 45%,40%, 35%, 30%, 25%, 20%, 15%, 10%, 5% or at least 1% of the cytosinesthat complement guanine positions in the complementary copy. Upontreatment of the complementary copy with sodium bisulfate, thosemethylated cytosines in the complementary copy are refractory to thedeamination reaction, and therefore the genomic complexity ismaintained.

As used herein “template nucleic acid” refers to that strand of apolynucleotide from which a complementary polynucleotide strand can behybridized or synthesized by a nucleic acid polymerase, for example, ina primer extension reaction. In some embodiments, the template nucleicacid is a template DNA.

In embodiments disclosed herein, a template nucleic acid is provided anda complementary copy of the template nucleic acid is generated orprovided. The template nucleic acid can be either a single DNA strand orone or both of the single strands in a double-stranded molecule. Inembodiments where the template nucleic acid is single stranded, thecomplementary copy is generated by extending an oligonucleotide primerwith a nucleic acid polymerase such that a complementary copy of some orpart of the template strand is extended in the 3′ direction of theoligonucleotide primer. In a preferred embodiment, the template nucleicacid comprises a template DNA.

In embodiments where the nucleic acid is double-stranded, one or bothstrands may serve as the template strand for nucleic acid polymerase.For example, where one strand (the “sense” strand) serves as template, acomplementary copy is generated which is complementary to the sensestrand. Likewise, where the antisense strand serves as template, acomplementary copy is generated which is complementary to the antisensestrand. Where both strands serve as template, a separate complementarycopy is generated for each of the sense and antisense strands. In apreferred embodiment, each strand of a double-stranded DNA molecule is atemplate nucleic acid.

As used herein, the term “complementary” refers to nucleic acidsequences that are capable of forming Watson-Crick base-pairs. Forexample, a complementary sequence of a first sequence is a sequencewhich is capable of forming Watson-Crick base-pairs with the firstsequence. The term “complementary” does not necessarily mean that asequence is complementary to the full-length of its complementarystrand, but the term can mean that the sequence is complementary to aportion thereof. Thus, in some embodiments, complementarity encompassessequences that are complementary along the entire length of the sequenceor a portion thereof. For example, two sequences can be complementary toeach other along at least 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45,50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100, 110, 120, 130, 140, 150,160, 170, 180, 190, or at least 200 consecutive nucleotides. Also, asused herein, a statement that one sequence is complementary to anothersequence also encompasses situations in which the two sequences havesome mismatches. For example, complementary sequences can includesequences that are complementary along at least 70%, 75%, 80%, 85%, 90%,91%, 92%, 93%, 94%, 95%, 96%, 97%, 98%, 99%, or 100% of the length ofthe sequence. Here, the term “sequence” encompasses, but is not limitedto, nucleic acid sequences, polynucleotides, oligonucleotides, probes,primers, primer-specific regions, and target-specific regions. Despitethe mismatches, the two sequences should have the ability to selectivelyhybridize to one another under appropriate conditions.

A first nucleic acid strand that is converted, for example usingbisulfate treatment, can have conversion induced noncomplementarity witha second strand to which it was previously complementary. For example,cytosines in a first nucleic acid strand may be converted to uracils,such that positions in the first strand that formerly containedcytosines capable of forming Watson-Crick base pairs with guanines atcomparable positions in the second, complementary strand are no longercapable of doing so. Nevertheless, for ease of identification, theconverted nucleic acid strand may be identified with respect tocomplementarity of the previous, non-converted first strand to thesecond strand.

As used herein, the terms “pairing” or “paired” and the like refer tomethods used to match a nucleic acid template with its correspondingcomplementary copy. For example, pairing can be accomplished via aphysical tether between the complementary copy and thebisulfite-converted template nucleic acid. Additionally oralternatively, pairing can be accomplished via tag molecules whichidentify the complementary copy and the bisulfite-converted templatenucleic acid as members of a nucleic acid pair. Tag molecules areuseful, for example, where the nucleic acid template and thecomplementary copy are not physically tethered together. Thus, throughthe use of tag molecules, the two paired members are matched andrecognized as members of a pair. The use of covalent tethers and tagmolecules are described in further detail below. Also, it will beappreciated that the term “pairing” is not limited to an action or stepthat must occur at a particular point in the processes described herein.Pairing of nucleic acid sequences can occur at any point in the processthat would allow information the information present in a complementarystrand to be associated with the information present in a correspondingtemplate strand. As such, when used as a noun, the term “pairing” canrefer to any two or more associated nucleic acid strands, whetherassociated physically or via other methods such as tagging or labeling,that are present at any step of a process described herein or that arepresent in any of the compositions described herein.

Methods of Sequencing

In accordance with the above, in one embodiment of the presentinvention, a method of sequencing nucleic acid comprising deaminatedcytosine is provided. In a preferred embodiment, the nucleic acid isDNA. In such embodiments, the method can include the steps of providinga sample comprising a template nucleic acid; generating a complementarycopy of the template nucleic acid, the generating being directed by anoligonucleotide primer using a nucleic acid polymerase in the presenceof a bisulfite-resistant cytosine analog such as 5-methyl dCTP, whereinthe generating produces a complementary copy of the template nucleicacid such that cytosine residues in the complementary copy aremethylated; subjecting the template nucleic acid and the complementarycopy to bisulfate treatment to convert unmethylated cytosine residues inthe template nucleic acid into uracil residues, resulting in abisulfite-converted template nucleic acid and a non-convertedcomplementary copy; and determining the nucleotide sequence of thebisulfite-converted template nucleic acid and the non-convertedcomplementary copy. In certain aspects, the method further comprisescomparing the nucleotide sequence of the non-converted complementarycopy to the nucleotide sequence of the bisulfite-converted templatenucleic acid, thereby obtaining the nucleotide sequence of the templateprior to bisulfite conversion.

Further, a method of identifying methylated cytosines in a nucleic acidis also provided. In a preferred embodiment, the nucleic acid is DNA. Insuch embodiments, the method can include the steps of obtainingbisulfite-converted template nucleic acid comprising at least one uracilresidue; obtaining a non-converted complementary copy of the templatenucleic acid; determining the nucleotide sequence of thebisulfite-converted template nucleic acid; determining the nucleotidesequence of the non-converted complementary copy of the template nucleicacid; comparing the nucleotide sequence of the non-convertedcomplementary copy of the template nucleic acid to thebisulfite-converted template nucleic acid, thereby determining thenucleotide sequence and/or the methylation status (for example, thelevel, pattern and/or position of methylated cytosine residues) of thetemplate nucleic acid prior to bisulfite conversion. In certain aspects,the method further comprises comparing the nucleotide sequence of thenon-converted complementary copy of the template nucleic acid to asequence in a database. In certain aspects, the method further comprisescomparing the nucleotide sequence of the bisulfite-converted templatenucleic acid to the sequence in the database.

In certain aspects of the above embodiments, the template nucleic acidis double-stranded. In other aspects, the template nucleic acid issingle-stranded. In certain aspects, the oligonucleotide primer iscapable of forming a hairpin loop. In some aspects, the complementarycopy is covalently coupled to the template nucleic acid. For example,the oligonucleotide primer can be ligated to the template nucleic acidprior to the generating step.

In some aspects of the methods and compositions described herein, theoligonucleotide primer comprises sequence complementary to a sequencingprimer and/or to a capture probe. In some aspects, a secondoligonucleotide primer is ligated to the complementary copy prior tobisulfite treatment. Furthermore, the second oligonucleotide primer cancomprise sequence complementary to, for example, a sequencing primer ora capture probe. In some aspects, the oligonucleotide primer iscovalently coupled to the complementary copy but not to the templatenucleic acid prior to bisulfite treatment. As will be discussed ingreater detail below, in some aspects, the template nucleic acid iscovalently coupled to a partner oligonucleotide, where theoligonucleotide primer and the partner oligonucleotide comprise a uniquetag, or at least a sufficiently distinct tag, sufficient to identify thetemplate nucleic acid and the complementary copy.

One embodiment of the present invention is set forth in FIG. 1. As shownin FIG. 1A, a single-stranded template is derived from genomic DNA orsome other nucleic acid source. Then an oligonucleotide primer, shownhere as a looped oligonucleotide, is ligated to the 3′ end of thetemplate strand. The looped oligonucleotide has a region ofself-complementarity which forms a loop and a stem with a free 3′ OHgroup. A nucleic acid polymerase such as a DNA polymerase is then usedto extend the oligonucleotide primer in a 5′→3′ direction in thepresence of a bisulfite-resistant cytosine analog such as 5-methyl dCTP.The resulting product is a complementary strand that is covalentlylinked to the template strand via the looped oligonucleotide, forming an(imperfect) inverted repeat. Imperfections in the inverted repeat aredue to the incorporation of cytosine analogs in some positions thatcorrespond to positions in the reverse complement having cytosines. Uponbisulfite conversion the positions that are occupied by cytosines willbe converted to uracils, whereas positions that are occupied bybisulfite-resistant cytosine will not be converted. Locations occupiedby uracil can be considered as imperfections in reference to cytosinesat corresponding locations in the reverse complement. One part of theinverted repeat represents the exact genomic sequence, where cytosinesare methylated, while the other part is informative in the determinationof methylation status. Although the methods are exemplified herein withregard to adding bisulfite-resistant cytosine analogs using apolymerase, it will be understood that such analogs can be added byother methods such as ligation of oligonucleotides having the analogs.

An alternative embodiment is shown in FIG. 1B, where the oligonucleotideprimer is not necessarily a looped oligonucleotide. Here, a primer isannealed to the template strand via a region of complementarity. Anucleic acid polymerase is then used to extend the oligonucleotideprimer in the presence of a bisulfite-resistant cytosine analog such as5-methyl dCTP, as described above for the looped oligonucleotideembodiment. One part of the resulting double-stranded product representsthe exact genomic sequence, where cytosines are methylated, while theother part is informative in the determination of methylation status.

In further embodiments of the present invention, complementary copiesare generated using a double-stranded template. FIG. 2 represents suchan embodiment. Generation of a complementary copy for each of the topand bottom template strands is accomplished via an oligonucleotideprimer for each strand. Thus, where the oligonucleotide primer is alooped oligonucleotide, the reactions result in a complementary strandfor each of the top and bottom strands. Each complementary strand iscovalently linked to its corresponding template strand via the loopedoligonucleotide, forming an (imperfect) inverted repeat. One part of theinverted repeat represents the exact genomic sequence, where cytosinesare methylated, while the other part is informative in the determinationof methylation status. As described above for single-stranded templates,other oligonucleotide primers can be used which are not looped, and onepart of each resulting double-stranded product represents the exactgenomic sequence, where cytosines are methylated, while the other partis informative in the determination of methylation status.

In order to interrogate the methylation status of the template strand, acytosine conversion reaction is performed. In some embodiments, such asthose depicted in FIG. 3, a second oligonucleotide primer can be firstligated to the 3′ end of the complementary copy using techniques knownin the art. The second oligonucleotide primer can contain sequenceuseful for capture on an array, for example, or to facilitate sequencingof the complementary copy. Where bisulfite conversion is used tointerrogate the methylation status of the template strand, thecomplementary copy and the template strand are subjected to bisulfiteconversion, as described in further detail below. As a result ofbisulfite conversion, unmethylated cytosines in the template nucleicacid are converted to uracil residues, while methylated cytosines areunchanged. In embodiments where the second oligonucleotide comprisessequence that will be used in later steps (i.e., for capture on an arrayor for binding of a sequencing primer), the second oligonucleotide canbe synthesized using a bisulfite-resistant cytosine analog such as5-methyl dCTP in the positions where maintaining a cytosine at thatposition is important. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, after bisulfiteconversion, a sequencing primer can hybridize to a portion of the secondoligonucleotide for use in a sequencing reaction.

Additionally, the oligonucleotide primer (e.g., the loopedoligonucleotide primer) can comprise sequence useful in later steps suchas capture on an array or for binding of a sequencing primer.Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 3, a sequencing primer can hybridize to aportion of the oligonucleotide primer for use in a sequencing reaction.It will be recognized by those of skill in the art that theoligonucleotide primer can be synthesized using a bisulfite-resistantcytosine analog such as 5-methyl dCTP in the positions where maintaininga cytosine at that position is important in steps that occur subsequentto bisulfite conversion.

Sequence Comparison and Alignment

Some of the embodiments provided herein relate to methods of identifyingmethylated cytosines in a nucleic acid. In a preferred embodiment, thenucleic acid is DNA. In an exemplary embodiment, the methods comprisethe steps of: obtaining bisulfite-converted template nucleic acid whichmay or may not comprise at least one uracil residue, obtaining anon-converted complementary copy of the template nucleic acid,determining the nucleotide sequence of the bisulfite-converted templatenucleic acid; determining the nucleotide sequence of the non-convertedcomplementary copy of the template nucleic acid; and comparing thenucleotide sequence of the non-converted complementary copy of thetemplate nucleic acid to the bisulfite-converted template nucleic acid,thereby determining the nucleotide sequence and/or the methylationstatus of the template nucleic acid prior to bisulfite conversion.

In certain embodiments, the methods can further comprise the step ofcomparing the nucleotide sequence of the non-converted complementarycopy of the template nucleic acid to a sequence in a database. Incertain other embodiments, the method comprises the further step ofcomparing the nucleotide sequence of the bisulfite-converted templatenucleic acid to the sequence in the database.

Thus, in such embodiments, the step of obtaining a non-convertedcomplementary copy of the template nucleic acid can include generating acomplementary copy of the template nucleic acid, the generating beingdirected by an oligonucleotide primer using a nucleic acid polymerase inthe presence of a bisulfite-resistant cytosine analog such as 5-methyldCTP, wherein the generating produces a complementary copy of thetemplate nucleic acid such that cytosine residues in the complementarycopy are methylated. The generation of a complementary copy of templatenucleic acid is described in further detail hereinabove.

In certain aspects of the above embodiments, the template nucleic acidcan be either double-stranded or single-stranded. In certain aspects,the oligonucleotide primer is capable of forming a hairpin loop. In someembodiments, the complementary copy is covalently coupled to thetemplate nucleic acid. For example, the oligonucleotide primer can beligated to the template nucleic acid prior to the generating step.

In aspects of the above embodiments, the oligonucleotide primer cancomprise sequence complementary to a sequencing primer and/or to acapture probe. In certain aspects, the generating step further cancomprise the step of ligating a second oligonucleotide primer to thecomplementary copy prior to bisulfite treatment. The secondoligonucleotide primer can also comprise sequence complementary to asequencing primer. Additionally, such a second oligonucleotide primercan comprise sequence complementary to a capture probe.

In certain aspects of the above embodiment, the oligonucleotide primeris covalently coupled to the complementary copy prior to bisulfitetreatment, but not to the template nucleic acid. In such embodiments,the template nucleic acid can be covalently coupled to a partneroligonucleotide, the oligonucleotide primer and the partneroligonucleotide comprising a unique tag, or at least a sufficientlydistinct tag, sufficient to identify the template nucleic acid and thecomplementary copy.

FIG. 4A represents an embodiment where alignment is performed usingsequences from a single-stranded reaction. In this embodiment, as setforth in FIG. 4A, the complementary copy generated from one templatestrand is sequenced. Additionally, the bisulfite-converted templatestrand may be sequenced. In one aspect of this embodiment, the sequencedata obtained for the complementary copy is then aligned with thesequence data obtained for the bisulfite-converted template. Thus,although the converted template strand may contain one or more uracilresidues, they are interpreted by sequencing techniques as thymineresidues. Thus, alignment of the converted template to the complementarycopy provides a reference to identify those thymines which correspond tocytosine in the template nucleic acid prior to bisulfite conversion.

The sequence data of either the complementary copy, or the convertedtemplate, or both, may be compared or aligned to sequence data in adatabase. This is especially useful where there is little or no overlapbetween the sequence data obtained from the complementary copy and fromthe converted template. Thus, where sequence data are obtained for onlya short region of the complementary copy, the data can be compared oraligned with a larger sequence in a database, in order to find an areaof overlap with the sequence data obtained from the converted template.

As shown in FIG. 4A, the sequence data obtained for the complementarycopy and the converted template will be complements of each other, witha mismatch in any position where unmethylated cytosine is converted touracil. Accordingly, in order to align the two sequences in the sameorientation, either the sequence data obtained for the complementarycopy or for the converted template can be manipulated to obtain thecorresponding complement sequence, which then can be aligned in the sameorientation with the other sequence obtained.

This extra manipulation step can be avoided where, for example, bothstrands of a double-stranded template are subjected to the methodsdescribed herein. An example is set forth in FIG. 2, where complementarycopies of both the top and bottom template strands are obtained. Theresulting products from this process can then be used to obtain andalign sequence data from the top and bottom strands, as well as theircomplementary copies. An example is shown in FIG. 4B. As set forth inFIG. 4B, it will be recognized that sequence data obtained from thebottom strand complementary copy will be in the same orientation as thetop strand converted template. Thus, sequence data from the bottomstrand complementary copy can be directly aligned with the sequence datafrom the top strand converted template.

Oligonucleotide Primers

In embodiments presented herein, an oligonucleotide primer is used todirect the generation of a complementary copy of the template nucleicacid. In certain embodiments, the oligonucleotide primer is capable offorming a hairpin loop (a “looped oligonucleotide”). Typically, such alooped oligonucleotide does not necessarily have any substantialcomplementarity to the template strand. For example, in multiplexembodiments where methylation status is to be determined for a pluralityof target sequences, the sequence of the oligonucleotide primer (whethercapable of forming a loop structure or not) can be designed to besufficiently different from any of the target sequences to inhibit crosshybridization of the primer sequence to any target sequences. In certainembodiments, the looped oligonucleotide primer is ligated to thetemplate nucleic acid prior to the step of generating the complementarycopy. Thus, in such embodiments the resulting complementary copy iscovalently coupled to the template nucleic acid. In multiplexembodiments, each of the different target sequences can be ligated to auniversal looped primer such that the same oligonucleotide primersequence is ligated to a plurality of different target sequences.

An example is shown in FIG. 1. As set forth in FIG. 1, anoligonucleotide primer, shown here as a looped oligonucleotide, isligated to the 3′ end of the template strand. The looped oligonucleotidehas a region of self-complementarity which forms a loop and a stem witha free 3′ OH group. This region of complementarity, which forms the stemof the loop, need only be of sufficient length and complementarity tocreate a transient stem-loop structure which can maintain its duplexedform long enough to permit the initiation of strand synthesis by apolymerase. A nucleic acid polymerase is then used to extend theoligonucleotide primer in a 5′→3′ direction in the presence of abisulfite-resistant cytosine analog such as 5-methyl dCTP. The resultingproduct is a complementary strand that is covalently linked to thetemplate strand via the looped oligonucleotide, forming an (imperfect)inverted repeat. One part of the inverted repeat represents the exactgenomic sequence, where cytosines are methylated, while the other partis informative of the methylation status.

However, in certain embodiments, the oligonucleotide primer can becomplementary to a portion of the template strand, regardless of whetherthe oligonucleotide primer is capable or not of forming a hairpin loop.Typically in such embodiments, the oligonucleotide primer iscomplementary to a region of the template which is located 3′ of theregion of interest. Complete complementarity is not required, but only alevel of complementarity sufficient to allow the oligonucleotide primerto prime the formation of the complementary strand. Thus, in certainembodiments, an oligonucleotide can be used which is complementary to a3′ region of the template nucleic acid. In embodiments where theoligonucleotide primer is a looped oligonucleotide, the loopedoligonucleotide is not necessarily ligated to the template nucleic acidprior to the step of generating a complementary copy.

In some embodiments, the oligonucleotide primer can comprise sequencecomplementary to a sequencing primer and/or to a capture probe.Sequencing primers can be used in later steps to facilitate sequencingof the template nucleic acid, the complementary copy, or both. The useof sequencing primers to determine the nucleotide sequence of thetemplate nucleic acid or the complementary copy is described in furtherdetail below.

In some embodiments, a second oligonucleotide primer can be ligated tothe complementary copy. Typically, ligation of a second oligonucleotideprimer is performed after the complementary copy is generated. Further,ligation of a second oligonucleotide primer often occurs prior tobisulfate treatment, however the order is not critical. The use of sucha second oligonucleotide primer can facilitate other downstreammanipulation of the complementary copy and/or the template nucleic acid.For example, such a second oligonucleotide primer can comprise sequencecomplementary to a sequencing primer. Sequencing primers can be used inlater steps to facilitate sequencing of the template nucleic acid, thecomplementary copy, or both. As another example, such a secondoligonucleotide primer can comprise sequence complementary to a captureprobe. A second oligonucleotide primer that is ligated to acomplementary copy or other nucleic acid target in a multiplex methodcan have a sequence that is non-complementary to target sequencespresenting a multiplex mixture to be analyzed and can have universalsequence such that the same primer sequence is ligated to differenttarget sequences in the multiplex mixture.

In general, capture probes are probes that are attached to a surface oranother molecule. Capture probes can be specific for one or a limitednumber of complementary nucleic acid sequences. For example, captureprobes can comprise one or more sequences complementary to unique,distinct, standardized, substantially similar, or identical tagsequences which are present in a set of nucleic acids of interest. Suchcapture probes will bind to nucleic acids which comprise thecorresponding (complementary) tag sequence. For example, capture probescan be designed to specifically bind sequences in the oligonucleotideprimers described above.

Nucleic Acid Pairs

Additional embodiments provided herein include tagged nucleic acidpairs. Preferred embodiments include a nucleic acid pair comprising atemplate nucleic acid comprising a cytosine residue; a complementarycopy of the template nucleic acid having every cytosine methylated; anda tag capable of identifying the template nucleic acid and thecomplementary copy of the template nucleic acid as members of thenucleic acid pair, wherein the template nucleic acid and thecomplementary copy of the template nucleic acid are coupled to the tag.Other embodiments include vectors comprising such nucleic acid pairs.

In certain embodiments of the present invention, the tag is a moleculeor nucleic acid sequence that is incorporated into an oligonucleotideprimer used to generate the nucleic acid pair. In some embodiments, thetag is a molecule or nucleic acid sequence that is incorporated into apartner oligonucleotide. In some embodiments, the template nucleic acidcan be covalently coupled to a partner oligonucleotide. Thus, in suchembodiments, the oligonucleotide primer and the partner oligonucleotideeach comprise a unique or distinct tag sufficient to identify thetemplate nucleic acid and the complementary copy.

As used herein, the terms “partner oligonucleotide,” “oligonucleotidetag” and like terms refer to an oligonucleotide which comprises a uniquetag sufficient to identify the template nucleic acid and thecomplementary copy. Alternatively, the tag can be a tag that is distinctenough from other tags to distinguish it from the other tags. A set ofoligonucleotide tags can be formed from a length of sequence that issufficient to distinguish a collection of target nucleic acid fragmentsof a particular complexity. In general, longer tag sequences allow alarger number of individual target molecules to be distinguished. A setof tags can have, for example, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 15 or 20 nucleotides. Insome embodiments, the tags may be longer than 20 nucleotides. Theforegoing exemplary lengths can constitute an average, maximum orminimum length for the tags in a set.

Embodiments utilizing tags are especially useful in methods andcompositions that include or comprise a plurality of the same, similarand/or different nucleic acids. Such embodiments are often referred toas multiplex embodiments. In these multiplex embodiments, the methodsare performed using and the compositions comprise a population ofnucleic acids. In some embodiments, the population of nucleic acids maybe divided into one or more sub-populations.

For example, in multiplex embodiments, genomic DNA is often used as asource of template nucleic acid. In such embodiments, preferred methodsutilize cutting or shearing techniques to cut the nucleic acid samplecontaining the target sequence into a size that will allow sufficientcoverage of the target sequence in sequencing reactions. This may beaccomplished by shearing the nucleic acid through mechanical forces(e.g. sonication) or by cleaving the nucleic acid using restrictionendonucleases. Alternatively, a fragment containing the target may begenerated using polymerase, primers and the sample as a template, as inpolymerase chain reaction (PCR). In addition, amplification of thetarget using PCR or LCR or related methods may also be done; this may beparticularly useful when the target sequence is present in the sample atextremely low copy numbers. Accordingly, because these fragmentationmethods result a plurality of randomly-generated fragments, a diverseset of unique or distinct tags can be useful in order to identify largenumbers of nucleic acid pairs.

Unique and/or different identifying tags are known in the art and caninclude, for example, fluorescent, radiolabel or nucleic acid tags.Fluorescent reporter dyes, are known in the art and can be used in theembodiments described herein. For example, by varying both thecomposition of the mixture (i.e. the ratio of one dye to another) andthe concentration of the dye (leading to differences in signalintensity), matrices of unique optical signatures may be generated. Thedyes may be chromophores or phosphors but are preferably fluorescentdyes, which due to their strong signals provide a good signal-to-noiseratio for identifying unique or distinct tags. Suitable dyes for use inthe invention include, but are not limited to, fluorescent lanthanidecomplexes, including those of Europium and Terbium, fluorescein,rhodamine, tetramethylrhodamine, eosin, erythrosin, coumarin,methyl-coumarins, pyrene, Malacite green, stilbene, Lucifer Yellow,Cascade Blue™, Texas Red, and others described in the 6th Edition of theMolecular Probes Handbook by Richard P. Haugland, hereby expresslyincorporated by reference.

Also particularly useful are nucleic acid tags. Where the unique ordistinct tag is a nucleic acid sequence, the tag can be any nucleic acidsequence long enough to be unique or sufficiently distinct among othertag sequences used in the same assay. Thus, partner oligonucleotideswhich comprise a unique or distinct tag will specifically hybridize witha probe having a nucleotide sequence complementary to the unique ordistinct tag. In certain embodiments, the template nucleic acid and thecomplementary copy each can comprise a tag that is unique or distinctwhen compared to tags present in other pairs but which is identical whencompared to each other. In other embodiments, the unique or distinct tagin the template nucleic acid can be complementary to the unique ordistinct tag in the complementary copy such that each tag is unique withregard to tags present in other pairs and with regard to tags within thesame pair.

In certain aspects of the above embodiments, the template nucleic acidis double-stranded. In other aspects, the template nucleic acid issingle-stranded. In certain other aspects, the template nucleic acid issingle-stranded and the complementary copy is single-stranded. Incertain aspects, the tag is, or is included in, a molecule disposedbetween the template nucleic acid and the complementary copy.Furthermore, in some embodiments, the molecule can comprise anoligonucleotide comprising a hairpin loop. In embodiments where the tagis a molecule that is disposed between the template nucleic acid and thecomplementary copy, neither unique nor distinct tag molecules need beused. In such embodiments, the nucleic acids are physically coupled viathe molecule, thereby constituting an identifiable nucleic acid pair.

In other aspects, the tag can comprise a first and secondoligonucleotide comprising an identical nucleotide sequence, wherein thefirst oligonucleotide is coupled to the template nucleic acid and thesecond oligonucleotide is coupled to the complementary copy. One exampleis set forth in FIG. 5A, where each complementary copy and eachcorresponding template is coupled to a unique or distinct tag. The tagcan comprise an oligonucleotide which comprises unique or distinctsequence. Thus, even where the two strands become separated in laterreaction steps, the unique or distinct tag can be used to identify thetemplate nucleic acid and the complementary copy as members of a nucleicacid pair. The entire sequence in the tag need not be unique ordistinct. However, a portion of the tag can comprise sequence thatidentifies the template nucleic acid and the complementary copy asmembers of a nucleic acid pair.

In other aspects, the tag comprises a first and second oligonucleotidecomprising complementary nucleotide sequence, wherein the firstoligonucleotide is coupled to the template nucleic acid and the secondoligonucleotide is coupled to the complementary copy. One example is setforth in FIG. 5B, where each complementary copy and each correspondingtemplate is coupled to an oligonucleotide, having at least some sequencewithin each oligonucleotide that is complementary to the other. Theentire sequence in the tag need not be unique or distinct. However, atleast a portion of the tag can comprise the complementaryoligonucleotides which comprise a unique or distinct tag. A portion ofthe tag can comprise sequence that identifies the template nucleic acidand the complementary copy as members of a nucleic acid pair. Thus, evenwhere the two strands become separated in later reaction steps, theunique or distinct tag can be used to identify the template nucleic acidand the complementary copy as members of a nucleic acid pair.

Removing and Trimming Repeats

Also presented herein are further methods of processing the templatenucleic acid and complementary copy. Where a looped oligonucleotide isused to generate a complementary copy having bisulfite-resistantcytosine analogs and the resulting looped complement is converted bybisulfite treatment, the resulting product is typically an imperfectinverted repeat. When DNA is used, for example, the product is animperfect inverted repeat because C:G base pairing is disrupted at siteswhere unmethylated cytosine is converted to uracil. However, in certainsituations where inverted repeats present problems with later sequencingand/or alignment steps, the repeats may be manipulated so that themethylated complementary copy and the converted template sequences arepresent on the same strand in a parallel, rather than inverted,orientation.

Thus, also presented herein are methods of removing an inverted repeat.In one embodiment, a copy of the converted template is first generatedafter bisulfite conversion. Next, the 3 end of the complementary copy isligated to the 5 end of the copy of the converted template. Finally, thestrand is broken such that the complementary copy is no longer coupledto the converted template nucleic acid.

FIG. 6A shows an example of this embodiment. A fragment comprising alooped, methylated copy of a template nucleic acid is provided. Asdescribed hereinabove, the fragment has been subjected to bisulfiteconversion and bears an additional oligonucleotide coupled to the 3′ endof the complementary copy. The orientation of the sequence is animperfect inverted repeat (5′ D-C . . . C′-D′ 3′). As set forth in FIG.6A, after bisulfite conversion, a copy of the converted template isgenerated using an oligonucleotide primer (A′) with complementarity to aregion (A) of the hairpin loop. Then, an intermolecular annealing isperformed between the additional oligonucleotide (B′) coupled to the 3′end of the complementary copy and a region (B) of the hairpin loopadjacent to the 5′ end of the primer is used to make a copy of theconverted template. The 3′ end of the additional oligonucleotide (B′) isligated to the 5′ end of the oligonucleotide primer (A′), and a strandbreak is induced in a region of the hairpin loop just 5′ of region (B).In the embodiment shown in FIG. 6A, the break is a chemical breakinduced using a sensitive group incorporated in the hairpin loop.However, it will be appreciated that any other suitable method (e.g.,restriction endonuclease) can be used to induce a single-strand break.The resulting product is shown at the bottom of FIG. 6A, and comprisesthe methylated complementary copy coupled to the 5′ end of the copy ofthe converted template. The complementary copy and the copy of theconverted template are separated by a region comprising the two primers(B′ and A′) used in this method. After this manipulation, theorientation of the repeat sequence is now direct (5′ C′-D′ . . . C′-D′3′), rather than inverted.

In certain sequencing settings, it is desirable to shorten the length ofa sequence to remove repeat regions in the sequence. Thus, presentedherein are additional methods that can be used to trim the fragmentgenerated in the above-described method in order to remove repeatregions. If the fragment is single stranded, a copy of the fragment ismade using a primer that is complementary to the 3′ end of the fragment,creating a double-stranded molecule. Next, a double-stranded adaptermolecule is ligated to one end of the molecule. The adapter cancomprise, for example, a recognition site for a restrictionendonuclease. In some embodiments, the restriction endonuclease will bea type III restriction endonuclease, which typically cuts about 20-30 bpaway from the recognition site. For example, the type III endonucleaseEcoP15I has a cleavage site 27 bp away from the enzyme recognition site.Additionally, the fragment can bear an additional oligonucleotidecoupled to the 5′ end of the converted template. This additionaloligonucleotide can also comprise a recognition site for a restrictionendonuclease such as EcoP15I. The process of ligating adapter moleculeswith subsequent endonuclease trimming can be repeated until the fragmenthas been trimmed to the desired length. Thus, for example, after tworounds of trimming with an endonuclease, a 100 nucleotide fragment canbe converted to a 46 nucleotide fragment.

FIG. 6B shows the additional trimming reaction that can be performed toremove additional repeats. A fragment is provided and a copy is made byextending an oligonucleotide primer using a nucleic acid polymerase. Asshown in FIG. 6B, a double-stranded adapter molecule is blunt-endligated to the double-stranded fragment. The adapter molecule comprisesan EcoP15I recognition site. Additionally, the fragment bears anadditional oligonucleotide coupled to the 5′ end of the convertedtemplate. This additional oligonucleotide comprises an EcoP15Irecognition site. Thus, the double-stranded fragment is trimmed in bothdirections. The process of annealing and ligating EcoP15I site adaptersis repeated using a pool of adapters with a degenerate 2-base overhang.After ligation of the adapters, the endonuclease reaction is repeated.The resulting product is a fragment where 54 nucleotides have beenremoved from each end.

Other Methods of Tracking Complementary Strands

Also provided herein are additional methods of keeping track of sequenceand methylation information in complementary strands after the strandshave been subjected to bisulfite conversion of nucleic acids. Theseadditional embodiments relate to pairing the bisulfite-convertedsequence of both strands of a double-stranded nucleic acid and using thesequence information from both strands to determine the sequence and/ormethylation status of one or both strands prior to bisulfite conversion.The pairing can be achieved, for example, by a physical tether betweenstrands or by the presence of tag sequences on each strand that identifythe strands as being paired. Thus, these embodiments preserve sequenceand methylation information of a template strand and can be performed,for example, without the step of generating a complementary strandcomprising bisulfite-resistant cytosine analogs.

In some such embodiments, a method of identifying methylated cytosinesin a nucleic acid comprises the steps of obtaining a template nucleicacid comprising at least a first methyl CpG dinucleotide, obtaining acomplementary copy of the template nucleic acid, wherein thecomplementary copy comprises a complementary methyl CpG dinucleotide ina position opposite the first methyl CpG dinucleotide and subjecting thetemplate nucleic acid and the complementary copy to bisulfite treatmentto convert unmethylated cytosine residues in the template nucleic acidinto uracil residues, thereby resulting in a bisulfite-convertedtemplate nucleic acid and a bisulfite-converted converted complementarycopy. Using the bisulfite-converted nucleic acids, the nucleotidesequence of the template nucleic acid and the nucleotide sequence of thebisulfite-converted complementary copy can be determined. The nucleotidesequence of the bisulfite-converted complementary copy can then becompared to the nucleotide sequence of the bisulfite-converted templatenucleic acid, so as to determine the nucleotide sequence of the templatenucleic acid prior to bisulfite conversion and the methylation status ofthe template nucleic acid prior to bisulfite conversion.

An exemplary embodiment is set forth in FIG. 7, in which adouble-stranded template nucleic acid is provided. The template nucleicacid comprises a template strand and a complementary copy strand. As setforth in FIG. 7, where a methylated cytosine appears in the context of aCpG dinucleotide in the template strand, the complementary strandcomprises a methyl CpG dinucleotide in a position opposite andcomplementary to the CpG dinucleotide in the template strand. Thetemplate and complementary strands are linked together using a loopedoligonucleotide, forming a hairpin loop. As set forth in FIG. 7, afterbisulfite conversion, the hairpin loop is unfolded, forming asingle-stranded molecule which comprises the template sequence at oneend and the complementary copy at the other end. A complementary copy ofthe single-stranded molecule can then be generated, so as to form aduplex nucleic acid which can then be used for sequencing purposes.Adapter oligonucleotides on the 5′ and 3′ ends can be used for primingsequencing reactions and, for example, for capture using capture probes.

With reference to FIG. 7, both the template strand and the complementarystrand can be sequenced. In particular, the nucleotide sequence of thebisulfite-converted template nucleic acid (i.e., the region betweenadapter sequence (2) and the loop sequence) can be determined.Additionally, the nucleotide sequence of the bisulfite-convertedcomplementary copy (i.e., the region between adapter sequence (1) andthe loop sequence) can be determined. By comparing the nucleotidesequences of the two bisulfite-converted regions, the methylation statusof the template nucleic acid prior to bisulfite conversion can bedetermined. Similarly, by comparing the nucleotide sequences of the twobisulfite-converted regions, the nucleotide sequence of the templatenucleic acid prior to bisulfite conversion can be determined. Oneexample of making such a comparison is set forth in the table below.

TABLE 1 Comparison of Bisulfite-Converted Sequences to DetermineMethylation Status and Sequence Prior to Bisulfite Conversion. Sequenceand Methylation Second fragment read, Status Prior to Bisulfite Firstfragment read equivalent position Conversion (first/second) T G unmethC/G T A T/A G T G/unmeth C A T A/T C G meth C/G G C G/meth C

The method described above and depicted in FIG. 7 is just one aspect ofthe embodiment. It will be appreciated that other variations of suchmethods can be employed in the embodiment described herein. For example,where a looped oligonucleotide is used to create a physical tetherbetween the two strands of double-stranded nucleic acid, the hairpin canbe unfolded either prior to or after bisulfite-conversion.

It will also be appreciated that the bisulfite-converted complementarycopy and the bisulfite-converted template nucleic acid can be pairedwithout using a physical tether. For example, the template nucleic acidand complementary copy can be paired via tag molecules which identifythe bisulfite-converted complementary copy and the bisulfite-convertedtemplate nucleic acid as members of a nucleic acid pair. The use of tagmolecules is described elsewhere herein and can be applied to thepresent embodiments. Thus, for example, adapter oligonucleotides may beligated to the template and complementary nucleic acid molecules. Theadapter oligonucleotides, can then be used to identify thebisulfite-converted template and the bisulfite-converted complementarycopy as members of a nucleic acid pair. It will be appreciated thatother tag molecules can include dyes and/or any other molecules that canbe grouped or paired.

Bisulfite Conversion and Detection of Methylation Status

Methylation of CpG dinucleotide sequences can be measured by employingcytosine conversion based technologies. The term “conversion” as usedherein means the conversion of an unmethylated cytosine to anothernucleotide which will distinguish the unmethylated from the methylatedcytosine. Typically, the agent modifies unmethylated cytosine to uracil.A commonly-used agent for modifying unmethylated cytosine preferentiallyto methylated cytosine is sodium bisulfite. However, other agents thatsimilarly modify unmethylated cytosine, but not methylated cytosine, canalso be used in the method of the invention. Sodium bisulfite (NaHSO₃)reacts readily with the 5,6-double bond of cytosine, but poorly withmethylated cytosine, as described by Olek A., Nucleic Acids Res.24:5064-6, 1996 or Frommer et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA89:1827-1831 (1992), each of which is incorporated herein by reference.Cytosine reacts with the bisulfite ion to form a sulfonated cytosinereaction intermediate which is susceptible to deamination, giving riseto a sulfonated uracil. The sulfonate group can be removed underalkaline conditions, resulting in the formation of uracil. Uracil isrecognized as a thymine by Taq polymerase and other polymerases andtherefore upon PCR or during a sequencing reaction, the resultantproduct contains cytosine only at the position where 5-methylcytosineoccurs in the starting template nucleic acid.

Bisulfite-treated nucleic acids, such as DNA, can subsequently beanalyzed by conventional molecular techniques, such as PCRamplification, sequencing, and detection comprising oligonucleotidehybridization. As described below, a variety of techniques are availablefor sequence-specific analysis (e.g., MSP) of the methylation status ofone or more CpG dinucleotides in a particular region of interest. Themethods provided herein are particularly useful for creating an archivedcomplementary copy of the pre-conversion sequence for each of amultitude of genomic fragments. The archived copy may be covalentlylinked to the bisulfite-converted template. Alternatively, the archivedcopy may not be covalently linked to the bisulfite-converted template,but rather the archived copy and the bisulfite-converted template may beinformationally linked via the unique or distinct tag sequencesdescribed above, which are either substantially identical to each otheror substantially complementary to each other.

Thus, although many of the embodiments set forth herein are specificallydescribed in the context of determining the nucleotide sequence of thebisulfite-converted template nucleic acid and a non-convertedcomplementary copy, the bisulfite-converted template nucleic acid may beused as a template for other methylation detection techniques, such asMSP, Ms-SNuPE, MethylLight™, and others known in the art. In such uses,the complementary copy is useful for example, to confirm the genomiccontext of the template nucleic acid or as a means for designingsite-specific primers for such techniques.

Techniques for the analysis of bisulfite treated DNA can employmethylation-sensitive primers for the analysis of CpG methylation statuswith isolated genomic DNA as described by Herman et al., Proc. Natl.Acad. Sci. USA 93:9821-9826, 1996, and in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,786,146 and6,265,171, each of which is incorporated herein by reference.Methylation sensitive PCR (MSP) allows for the detection of a specificmethylated CpG position within, for example, the regulatory region of agene. The DNA of interest is treated such that methylated andnon-methylated cytosines are differentially modified, for example, bybisulfite treatment, in a manner discernable by their hybridizationbehavior. PCR primers specific to each of the methylated andnon-methylated states of the DNA are used in a PCR amplification.Products of the amplification reaction are then detected, allowing forthe elucidation of the methylation status of the target locus, such as atarget CpG site, within the genomic DNA. Other methods for the analysisof bisulfate treated DNA include methylation-sensitive single nucleotideprimer extension (Ms-SNuPE) (Gonzalgo & Jones, Nucleic Acids Res.25:2529-2531, 1997; and see U.S. Pat. No. 6,251,594, each of which isincorporated herein by reference), and the use of real time PCR basedmethods, such as the art-recognized fluorescence-based real-time PCRtechnique MethyLight™. (Eads et al., Cancer Res. 59:2302-2306, 1999;U.S. Pat. No. 6,331,393; and Heid et al., Genome Res. 6:986-994, 1996,each of which is incorporated herein by reference).

Methods such as those set forth above can be used to determine themethylation level and/or pattern of at least one locus in a sample DNAof interest. In some embodiments, one locus on the sample DNA ismeasured. In other embodiments the methylation level for a plurality ofloci is determined. In some embodiments, methylation levels and/orpatterns for large pluralities of loci can be determined using a nucleicacid array. A nucleic acid array provides a convenient platform forsimultaneous analysis of large numbers of loci including, for example,at least 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 50, 100, 500, 1000, 5000, 10,000,100,000, 10⁶, 10⁷ or more loci. Methods set forth herein can be used toanalyze or evaluate such pluralities of loci simultaneously orsequentially as desired. In particular embodiments, a plurality ofdifferent probe molecules can be attached to a substrate or otherwisespatially distinguished in an array. Each probe is typically specificfor a particular locus and can be used to distinguish methylation statusof the locus. Exemplary arrays that can be used in the inventioninclude, without limitation, slide arrays, silicon wafer arrays, liquidarrays, bead-based arrays and others known in the art or set forth infurther detail below.

Determination of Nucleotide Sequence

The methods provided herein include the steps of determining thenucleotide sequence of bisulfate-converted template nucleic acid and anon-converted complementary copy of the template nucleic acid. In apreferred embodiment, the nucleic acid is DNA. Methods of determining anucleotide sequence of interest are known in the art, and any suchmethod can suitably be used to determine the nucleotide sequence of thebisulfate-converted template nucleic acid and/or the complementary copyof the template. The methods and nucleic acid compositions providedherein are particularly useful in array-based sequencing methodologies,where large numbers of molecules may be sequenced in parallel.Array-based sequencing methodologies are known in the art. Accordingly,it will be apparent to one of skill in the art that any of a variety ofarrays may be used to determine the nucleic acid sequences of interest.Particularly useful are arrays that utilize clonal amplification ofsingle molecules or, alternatively, arrays wherein single molecules aredetected individually.

For embodiments that include clonal amplification any of a variety ofmethods can be used. Several amplification methods will be exemplifiedbelow in the context of commercial sequencing products or othersequencing systems. It will be understood that amplification methods andsequencing methods can by used in various combinations and the examplesbelow are provided for purposes of explanation and are not intended towed any particular amplification method to any particular sequencingmethod.

Useful methods for clonal amplification from single molecules includerolling circle amplification (RCA) (Lizardi et al., Nat. Genet.19:225-232 (1998), which is incorporated herein by reference), bridgePCR (Adams and Kron, Method for Performing Amplification of Nucleic Acidwith Two Primers Bound to a Single Solid Support, Mosaic Technologies,Inc. (Winter Hill, Mass.); Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research,Cambridge, Mass., (1997); Adessi et al., Nucl. Acids Res. 28:E87 (2000);Pemov et al., Nucl. Acids Res. 33:e11 (2005); or U.S. Pat. No.5,641,658, each of which is incorporated herein by reference), polonygeneration (Mitra et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100:5926-5931(2003); Mitra et al., Anal. Biochem. 320:55-65 (2003), each of which isincorporated herein by reference), and clonal amplification on beadsusing emulsions (Dressman et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA100:8817-8822 (2003), which is incorporated herein by reference) orligation to bead based adapter libraries (Brenner et al., Nat.Biotechnol. 18:630-634 (2000); Brenner et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.USA 97:1665-1670 (2000)); Reinartz, et al., Brief Funct. GenomicProteomic 1:95-104 (2002), each of which is incorporated herein byreference).

A successful approach to generation of clonal arrays is the use ofpolonies originally described by Mitra et al. (Nucleic Acids Res. 27:e34(1999)). Polonies are generated by some form of solid-phaseamplification by primers attached to a surface (Adams and Kron, Methodfor Performing Amplification of Nucleic Acid with Two Primers Bound to aSingle Solid Support, Mosaic Technologies, Inc. (Winter Hill, Mass.);Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, Mass., (1997);Adessi et al., Nucl. Acids Res. 28:E87 2000); Mitra and Church, NucleicAcids Res. 27:e34 (1999)).

Bridge amplification is also useful, for example, as carried out in acommercial sequencing platform from Solexa (Hayward Calif., subsequentlyacquired by Illumina Inc) (Adams and Kron, Method for PerformingAmplification of Nucleic Acid with Two Primers Bound to a Single SolidSupport, Mosaic Technologies, Inc. (Winter Hill, Mass.); WhiteheadInstitute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, Mass., (1997); Dressman etal., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100:8817-8822 (2003); Mitra and Church,Nucleic Acids Res. 27:e34 (1999)). The Solexa sequencing platformemploys solid-phase bridge PCR using a pair of PCR primers immobilizedto a slide surface. Repeated cycles of denaturation and polymeraseextension lead to amplification of the target molecule on the solidphase surface. Bridge amplification, with its immobilized primers, canbe performed with thermocycling or isothermally by physically exposingthe surface to alternating cycles of denaturation and extension.

Templates may be amplified on beads, for example using emulsion PCRtechniques. In emulsion PCR techniques a population of beads is providedhaving a first primer attached to each bead. The beads and template DNAare mixed in an emulsion at a concentration where, on average, nobead-containing oil droplet will contain more than one template. Atemplate can hybridize to a bead via hybridization of the primer on thebead to a primer that was previously ligated to the template. FollowingPCR amplification the beads will contain multiple copies of a singletemplate Sequence. Exemplary emulsion-based amplification techniquesthat can be used in a method of the invention are described in US2005/0042648; US 2005/0079510; US 2005/0130173 and WO 05/010145, each ofwhich is incorporated herein by reference.

After an array of clonal features is created, the array can be subjectedto cycle sequencing consisting of repeated rounds of sequencingbiochemistry interspersed by imaging. Several formats of cyclesequencing have been described in the literature, and includesequencing-by-synthesis (SBS), sequencing-by-ligation (SBL), andsequencing-by-hybridization (SBH). One of the most useful forms of cyclesequencing is SBS, in which the sequence of a template, for example, ina polony or amplicon, is read by repeated rounds of polymerase-basednucleotide insertion and fluorescent/chemiluminescent readout. Towexemplary formats of SBS are: (1) stepwise nucleotide addition (SNA)employing cycles of dNTP incorporation and imaging, and (2) cyclicreversible termination (CRT) employing cycles of incorporation ofreversible terminators, imaging, and deprotection.

Sequencing can be carried out using any suitable sequencing technique,wherein nucleotides are added successively to a free 3′ hydroxyl group,resulting in synthesis of a nucleic acid chain in the 5′ to 3′direction. The nature of the nucleotide added is preferably determinedafter each nucleotide addition. Sequencing techniques using sequencingby ligation and techniques such as massively parallel signaturesequencing (MPSS) where bases are removed from, rather than added to thestrands on the surface are also useful, as are techniques usingdetection of pyrophosphate release (pyrosequencing).

The initiation point for a sequencing reaction may be provided byannealing of a sequencing primer to a target nucleic acid present at afeature of an array. In this connection, a known adapter region that ispresent on a target nucleic acid, for example, as a result of a reactiondescribed previously herein, can be used as a priming site for annealingof a sequencing primer. For example, a sequencing primer can be annealedto a priming site that was ligated to a target sequence prior tobisulfate treatment.

In a particular embodiment, a nucleic acid sequencing reaction caninclude steps of hybridising a sequencing primer to a single-strandedregion of a linearized amplification product, sequentially incorporatingone or more nucleotides into a nucleic acid strand complementary to theregion of amplified template strand to be sequenced, identifying thebase present in one or more of the incorporated nucleotide(s) andthereby determining the sequence of a region of the template strand.

One preferred sequencing method utilizes modified nucleotides havingremovable 3′ blocks, for example, as described in WO 04/018497 and U.S.Pat. No. 7,057,026, the contents of which are incorporated herein byreference. Once the modified nucleotide has been incorporated into thegrowing nucleic acid chain complementary to the region of the templatebeing sequenced there is no free 3′-OH group available to direct furthersequence extension and therefore the polymerase can not add furthernucleotides. This allows convenient detection of single nucleotideincorporation events. Once the identity of the base incorporated intothe growing chain has been determined, the 3′ block may be removed toallow addition of the next successive nucleotide. By ordering theproducts derived using these modified nucleotides, it is possible todeduce the DNA sequence of the DNA template. Multiple reactions can becarried out in parallel on a single array, for example, if each of themodified nucleotides has a different label attached thereto, known tocorrespond to the particular base, thereby facilitating discriminationbetween the bases added during each incorporation step. If desired, aseparate reaction may be carried out for each of the modifiednucleotides.

Modified nucleotides used in an amplification or sequencing reaction maycarry a label to facilitate their detection. A fluorescent label, forexample, may be used for detection of modified nucleotides. Eachnucleotide type may thus carry a different fluorescent label, forexample, as described in WO 07/135,368, the contents of which areincorporated herein by reference in their entirety. The detectable labelneed not, however, be a fluorescent label. Any label can be used whichallows the detection of an incorporated nucleotide. Similarly,fluorescent labels or other labels can be used to detect any of avariety of analytes on an array.

One method for detecting fluorescently labelled nucleotides comprisesusing laser light of a wavelength specific for the labelled nucleotides,or the use of other suitable sources of illumination. The fluorescencefrom the label on the nucleotide may be detected by a CCD camera orother suitable detection means. Suitable instrumentation for recordingimages of clustered arrays is described in WO 07/123,744, the contentsof which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.Detectors that are capable of obtaining an image of an array surfacesuch as those configured to scan an array surface. Such detectors can beconfigured to take a static image of an array surface, scan a pointacross an array surface or scan a line across an array surface.Exemplary scanning devices that can be used are described, for example,in U.S. Pat. No. 7,329,860, which is incorporated herein by reference. Adetector can be configured to obtain an image of an array at highresolution, for example, in the low micron to submicron range. Inparticular embodiments, an image can be obtained at a Rayleighresolution between 0.2 and 10 micrometers.

The invention is not intended to be limited to use of the sequencingmethod outlined above, as a variety of sequencing methodologies whichutilize successive incorporation of nucleotides into a nucleic acidchain or removal of nucleotides from a nucleic acid chain can be used.Suitable alternative techniques include, for example, Pyrosequencing,FISSEQ (fluorescent in situ sequencing), MPSS and sequencing byligation-based methods, for example as described is U.S. Pat. No.6,306,597. Sequencing by hybridization methods can also be used. Furthersequencing techniques, some of which relate to the above describedmethods are set forth in further detail below.

In one commercial implementation from 454 Lifesciences, (Branford,Conn.) and Roche Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland), cyclic pyrosequencingfrom assembled clonal beads has been used to sequence entire genomes(Margulies et al., Nature 437:376-380 (2005), which is incorporatedherein by reference). This approach provides high accuracy andthroughput. Other examples of SNA in the literature include the methodsdescribed in combination with polony amplification by Mitra et al.,supra, 2003. Cyclic addition of cleavable fluorescently-labeled dNTPswas used to sequence the polony clones. After each base addition andimaging step, fluorescent labels were cleaved by disulfide reduction. Ina third approach described by Braslaysky et al., single target moleculeswere immobilized onto a glass microscope slide at a sparse density andperformed cycle sequencing by basewise addition of Bodipy-labeled dNTPs(Braslaysky et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100:3960-3964 (2003),which is incorporated herein by reference). After imaging, thefluorescence was destroyed by photobleaching. Similar manipulations canbe used to determine the sequence of a sample nucleic acid in accordancewith the methods set forth herein.

In CRT, cycle sequencing is accomplished by stepwise addition ofreversible terminator nucleotides containing a cleavable orphotobleachable dye label. This approach is being commercialized bySolexa (now Illumina), and is also described in WO 91/06678, which isincorporated herein by reference. The availability offluorescently-labeled terminators in which both the termination can bereversed and the fluorescent label cleaved is important to facilitatingefficient CRT. Polymerases can also be co-engineered to efficientlyincorporate and extend from these modified nucleotides. In particularembodiments, reversible terminators/cleavable fluors can include fluorlinked to the ribose moiety via a 3′ ester linkage (Metzker, Genome Res.15:1767-1776 (2005), which is incorporated herein by reference). Otherapproaches have separated the terminator chemistry from the cleavage ofthe fluorescence label (Ruparel et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 102:5932-7 (2005), which is incorporated herein by reference). Ruparel et aldescribed the development of reversible terminators that used a small 3′allyl group to block extension, but could easily be deblocked by a shorttreatment with a palladium catalyst. The fluorophore was attached to thebase via a photocleavable linker that could easily be cleaved by a 30second exposure to long wavelength UV light. Thus, both disulfidereduction or photocleavage can be used as a cleavable linker. Anotherapproach to reversible termination is the use of natural terminationthat ensues after placement of a bulky dye on a dNTP. The presence of acharged bulky dye on the dNTP can act as an effective terminator throughsteric and/or electrostatic hindrance. The presence of one incorporationevent prevents further incorporations unless the dye is removed.Cleavage of the dye removes the fluor and effectively reverses thetermination.

Paired-End Sequencing

A further sequencing methodology useful in the methods and arraysprovided herein is paired-end sequencing. This methodology is describedin greater detail in WO 2007/010252, WO 2007/091077 and WO 03/74734,each of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. Thisapproach utilizes pairwise sequencing of a double-standed polynucleotidetemplate, which results in the sequential determination of nucleotidesequences in two distinct and separate regions of the polynucleotidetemplate. The paired-end methodology makes it possible to obtain twolinked or paired reads of sequence information from each double-strandedtemplate on a clustered array, rather than just a single sequencing readas can be obtained with other methods.

Paired end sequencing technology can make special use of clusteredarrays, generally formed by solid-phase amplification, for example asset forth in the incorporated materials in WO 03/74734. Targetpolynucleotide duplexes, fitted with adapters, are immobilized to asolid support at the 5′ ends of each strand of each duplex, for example,via bridge amplification as described above, forming dense clusters ofdouble stranded DNA. Because both strands are immobilized at their 5′ends, sequencing primers are then hybridized to the free 3′ end andsequencing by synthesis is performed. Adapter sequences can be insertedin between target sequences to allow for up to four reads from eachduplex, as described in the incorporated materials in WO 2007/091077.

This pairwise approach is particularly useful for clustered arrays, andallows for rapid throughput because two linked or paired reads areprovided from each double-stranded template, rather than a singlesequencing read. Furthermore, this approach offers straightforwardsample preparation, using different adapters to introduce two uniquepriming sites on opposite strands. In one application of thismethodology, both primers can start sequencing with a T nucleotide toaid colocalization between the two reads.

In a further adaptation of this methodology, specific strands can becleaved in a controlled fashion as set forth in the incorporatedmaterials in WO 2007/010252. As a result, the timing of the sequencingread for each strand can be controlled, permitting sequentialdetermination of the nucleotide sequences in two distinct and separateregions on complementary strands of the double-stranded template.

Arrays

Some of the embodiments provided herein relate to arrays and methods ofmaking arrays, useful for determining the methylation status of one ormore nucleic acid sequences. With respect to making such arrays, in apreferred embodiment, the method can include the steps of: providing asolid support with a plurality of sites; providing a sample comprising atemplate nucleic acid; generating a complementary copy of the templatenucleic acid, the generating being directed by an oligonucleotide primerusing a nucleic acid polymerase in the presence of a bisulfite-resistantcytosine analog such as 5-methyl dCTP, wherein the generating produces acomplementary copy of the template nucleic acid such that each cytosineresidue in the complementary copy is methylated; subjecting the templatenucleic acid and the complementary copy to bisulfite treatment toconvert unmethylated cytosine residues in the template nucleic acid intouracil residues, resulting in a bisulfite-converted template nucleicacid and a non-converted complementary copy; and coupling the templateand the complementary copy of the template to the solid support. Incertain aspects of the method, at least one of the sites comprises acapture probe. In such aspects, the capture probe can comprise anucleotide sequence complementary to the template or the complementarycopy of the template. In certain aspects, an oligonucleotidecomplementary to the capture probe is attached to the template orcomplementary copy of the template.

The template nucleic acids described above can be double-stranded orsingle-stranded. In certain embodiments, the oligonucleotide primer iscapable of forming a hairpin loop. In such embodiments, thecomplementary copy can be covalently coupled to the template nucleicacid. Typically in such embodiments, the oligonucleotide primer isligated to the template nucleic acid prior to the generating step. Also,in certain aspects the oligonucleotide primer can comprise sequencecomplementary to a sequencing primer and/or to a capture probe.

In some of the embodiments described above, the method can furthercomprise the step of ligating a second oligonucleotide primer to thecomplementary copy prior to bisulfite treatment. In such methods, thesecond oligonucleotide primer can comprise sequence complementary to asequencing primer. Further, the second oligonucleotide primer cancomprise sequence complementary to a capture probe. In some embodiments,both capture probe-complementary and sequencing primer-complementarysequences are included in the second oligonucleotide primer.

In certain embodiments, the oligonucleotide primer is covalently coupledto the complementary copy prior to bisulfite treatment, but not to thetemplate nucleic acid. In such methods, the template nucleic acid iscovalently coupled to a partner oligonucleotide, the oligonucleotideprimer and the partner oligonucleotide comprising a unique tagsufficient to identify the template nucleic acid and the complementarycopy.

Also provided herein are arrays useful for determining the methylationstatus of one or more nucleic acid sequences. In a preferred embodiment,the array comprises: a solid support with a plurality of sites, abisulfite-converted template nucleic acid; and a non-convertedcomplementary copy of the template nucleic acid; wherein the templatenucleic acid is coupled to at least one of the plurality of sites andthe non-converted complementary copy is coupled to at least one of theplurality of sites. In certain aspects the template nucleic acid isannealed to at least one of the plurality of sites and the non-convertedcomplementary copy is annealed to at least one of the plurality ofsites. It will be understood that more than one feature may be presentat any one site. Thus, for example, in some aspects, thebisulfite-converted template nucleic acid and the non-convertedcomplementary copy can be annealed to the same site. Also, multiplecopies of the bisulfite-converted template nucleic acid, and/or multiplecopies of the non-converted complementary copy, may all be present atthe same site. In certain aspects, each cytosine residue is methylatedin the non-converted complementary copy of the template nucleic acid. Incertain aspects, each unmethylated cytosine residue in thebisulfite-converted template nucleic acid has been converted into auracil residue.

In certain aspects, at least one of the sites comprises a capture probe.In certain aspects, the capture probe comprises a nucleotide sequencecomplementary to the template nucleic acid or the complementary copy ofthe template nucleic acid. In certain aspects, an oligonucleotidecomplementary to the capture probe is attached to the template orcomplementary copy of the template.

In particular embodiments the array comprises a plurality of differenttarget nucleic acids and the target nucleic acids have target sequencesthat are different from each other but a universal priming sequence thatis the same for all or at least a plurality of the target nucleic acids.The universal priming sequence can be used to sequence the differenttarget sequences using universal primers that have a sequence, in commonbetween them, that is complementary to the universal priming sequence.

In certain aspects of the above embodiments, the complementary copy iscovalently coupled to the template nucleic acid. In certain aspects, amolecule is disposed between the template nucleic acid and thecomplementary copy of the template nucleic acid. In certain aspects, themolecule is an intervening oligonucleotide. In certain aspects, theintervening oligonucleotide is capable of forming a hairpin loop. Incertain aspects, the intervening oligonucleotide comprises sequencecomplementary to a sequencing primer and/or to a capture probe. Incertain aspects, an additional oligonucleotide is covalently coupled tothe complementary copy. The additional oligonucleotide can comprisesequence complementary to a sequencing primer, or to a capture probe,for example.

In particular embodiments, the complementary copy is not covalentlycoupled to the template nucleic acid. In such embodiments, thecomplementary copy can be paired to the template nucleic acid throughthe use of tag molecules which identify nucleic acid pairs.

In certain embodiments of the present invention, the tag is a moleculeor nucleic acid sequence that is incorporated into an oligonucleotideprimer used to generate the nucleic acid pair. In some embodiments, thetag is a molecule or nucleic acid sequence that is incorporated into apartner oligonucleotide. In some embodiments, the template nucleic acidcan be covalently coupled to a partner oligonucleotide. Thus, in suchembodiments, the oligonucleotide primer and the partner oligonucleotideeach comprise a unique or distinct tag sufficient to identify thetemplate nucleic acid and the complementary copy.

As used herein, the terms “partner oligonucleotide,” “oligonucleotidetag” and like terms refer to an oligonucleotide which comprises a uniquetag sufficient to identify the template nucleic acid and thecomplementary copy. Alternatively, the tag can be a tag that is distinctenough from other tags to distinguish it from the other tags.

Embodiments utilizing tags are especially useful in methods andcompositions that include or comprise a plurality of the same, similarand/or different nucleic acids. Such embodiments are often referred toas multiplex embodiments. In these multiplex embodiments, the methodsare performed using and the compositions comprise a population ofnucleic acids. In some embodiments, the population of nucleic acids maybe divided into one or more sub-populations.

In particular embodiments, microspheres or beads useful for detectingmethylation can be arrayed or otherwise spatially distinguished.Exemplary bead-based arrays that can be used in the invention include,without limitation, those in which beads are associated with a solidsupport as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,355,431 B1, US 2002/0102578 andPCT Publication No. WO 00/63437, each of which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

By “microspheres” or “beads” or “particles” or grammatical equivalentsherein is meant small discrete particles. The composition of the beadswill vary, depending on the class of bioactive agent and the method ofsynthesis. Suitable bead compositions include those used in peptide,nucleic acid and organic moiety synthesis, including, but not limitedto, plastics, ceramics, glass, polystyrene, methylstyrene, acrylicpolymers, paramagnetic materials, thoria sol, carbon graphited, titaniumdioxide, latex or cross-linked dextrans such as Sepharose, cellulose,nylon, cross-linked micelles and teflon may all be used. “MicrosphereDetection Guide” from Bangs Laboratories, Fishers Ind. is a helpfulguide.

The beads need not be spherical; irregular particles may be used. Inaddition, the beads may be porous, thus increasing the surface area ofthe bead available for assay. The bead sizes range from nanometers, i.e.100 nm, to millimeters, i.e. 1 mm, with beads from about 0.2 micron toabout 200 microns being preferred, and from about 0.5 to about 5 micronbeing particularly preferred, although in some embodiments smaller beadsmay be used. An array of beads useful in the invention can also be in afluid format such as a fluid stream of a flow cytometer or similardevice. Exemplary formats that can be used in the invention todistinguish beads in a fluid sample using microfluidic devices aredescribed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,524,793. Commerciallyavailable fluid formats for distinguishing beads include, for example,those used in XMAP™ technologies from Luminex or MPSS™ methods from LynxTherapeutics.

Any of a variety of arrays known in the art can be used in the presentinvention. For example, arrays that are useful in the invention can benon-bead-based. A particularly useful array is an Affymetrix™ GeneChip™array or other arrays produced by photolithographic methods such asthose described in WO 00/58516; U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,143,854, 5,242,974,5,252,743, 5,324,633, 5,445,934, 5,744,305, 5,384,261, 5,405,783,5,424,186, 5,451,683, 5,482,867, 5,491,074, 5,527,681, 5,550,215,5,571,639, 5,578,832, 5,593,839, 5,599,695, 5,624,711, 5,631,734,5,795,716, 5,831,070, 5,837,832, 5,856,101, 5,858,659, 5,936,324,5,968,740, 5,974,164, 5,981,185, 5,981,956, 6,025,601, 6,033,860,6,040,193, 6,090,555, 6,136,269, 6,269,846, 6,022,963, 6,083,697,6,291,183, 6,309,831 and 6,428,752; and in WO 99/36760, each of which isincorporated herein by reference. A spotted array can also be used in amethod of the invention. An exemplary spotted array is a CodeLink™ Arrayavailable from Amersham Biosciences. Another array that is useful in theinvention is one manufactured using inkjet printing methods such asSurePrint™ Technology available from Agilent Technologies.

Probes used in an array can be specific for the methylated allele of alocus, the non-methylated allele of the locus or both alleles.Specificity can result, for example, from complementarity of a nucleicacid probe to the sequence of one or both alleles or to the sequence ofa detection probe that is specifically modified in the presence of oneor both alleles (for example, via bisulfite treatment). Specificity canalso be a function of probe modification that occurs in atarget-specific fashion. For example, a probe that binds both alleles ofa locus can be extended to incorporate a different nucleotide in atemplate-directed polymerase extension event depending upon the allelethat is hybridized to the probe. Examples of probe modificationreactions that can be used to provide specificity for particular allelesare known in the art as described, for example, in US 2005/0181394,which is incorporated herein by reference. A probe used in an array canalso be specific for other detection probes that are modified in thepresence of the methylated or non-methylated allele of a locus, such asthe address sequence of a ligation probe used in the DNA methylationdetection method as described, for example, in Bibikova et al., GenomeResearch, 16:383-393 (2006). Arrays that achieve specificity via probeswith sequences that are complementary to address sequences rather thanto the sequence of methylated loci are referred to as universal arrays.

DNA Samples

A DNA sample used in a method set forth herein can be obtained from anybiological fluid, cell, tissue, organ or portion thereof, that containsgenomic DNA suitable for methylation detection. The DNA sample can bederived from a biological source by isolation techniques oramplification techniques or a combination of these techniques. A samplecan include or be suspected to include a neoplastic cell, such as a cellfrom the colon, rectum, breast, ovary, prostate, kidney, lung, blood,brain or other organ or tissue that contains or is suspected to containa neoplastic cell. The methods can use samples present in an individualas well as samples obtained or derived from the individual. For example,a sample can be a histologic section of a specimen obtained by biopsy,or cells that are placed in or adapted to tissue culture or cells thatare stored, for example, as fresh frozen paraffin embedded samples. Asample further can be a subcellular fraction or extract, or a crude orsubstantially pure nucleic acid molecule. It will be appreciated,however, that samples need not originate from humans. In someembodiments, samples can comprise a composition of nucleic acidsobtained from one or more organisms.

A sample can be obtained in a variety of ways known in the art. Samplesmay be obtained according to standard techniques from all types ofbiological sources that are usual sources of nucleic acids including,but not limited to cells or cellular components which contain nucleicacids, cell lines, biopsies, bodily fluids such as blood, sputum, stool,urine, cerebrospinal fluid, ejaculate, tissue embedded in paraffin suchas tissue from eyes, intestine, kidney, brain, heart, prostate, lung,breast or liver, histological object slides, and all possiblecombinations thereof. In preferred embodiments, the nucleic acidscomprise genomic DNA. Such genomic DNA can be amplified or copied suchthat the sequence information and methylation state of the genomic DNAis converted to another nucleic acid form such as RNA, cDNA, cRNA or thelike.

In some embodiments, the methylation status can be determined using abead array from a company such as Illumina, Inc. (San Diego, Calif.).However, other types of DNA arrays, such as those manufactured byAffymetrix, Inc. (San Jose, Calif.) are also contemplated. The dataimported into a methylation analysis algorithm can be obtained by anymethod, including those described above. Those skilled in the art willknow or be able to determine appropriate format in which to placemethylation data for importation and analysis into a methylationanalysis algorithm. Similarly those skilled in the art will know or beable to determine how to modify any of a variety of methylation analysisalgorithms to include a method for determining standard deviation ofmethylation levels or a method for comparing methylation levels inaccordance with the teaching provided herein.

Diagnostic and Prognostic Methods

The methods set forth herein exploit the potential of genomicmethylation of CpG dinucleotides and other genomic DNA loci asindicators of the presence of a condition in an individual and providesa reliable diagnostic and/or prognostic method applicable to anycondition associated with altered levels or patterns of genomicmethylation of CpG dinucleotides or other loci. The methods can beapplied to the characterization, classification, differentiation,grading, staging, diagnosis, or prognosis of a condition characterizedby a pattern of one or more methylated genomic CpG dinucleotidesequences that is distinct from the pattern of one or more methylatedgenomic CpG dinucleotide sequences exhibited in the absence of thecondition. For example, a method set forth herein can be used todetermine whether the methylation level for a sample suspected of beingaffected by a disease or condition is the same or different compared toa sample that is considered “normal” with respect to the disease orcondition.

In particular embodiments, the methods can be directed to diagnosing anindividual with a condition that is characterized by a methylation leveland/or pattern of methylation at particular loci in a test sample thatare distinct from the methylation level and/or pattern of methylationfor the same loci in a sample that is considered normal or for which thecondition is considered to be absent. The methods can also be used forpredicting the susceptibility of an individual to a condition that ischaracterized by a level and/or pattern of methylated loci that isdistinct from the level and/or pattern of methylated loci exhibited inthe absence of the condition.

Exemplary conditions that are suitable for analysis using the methodsset forth herein can be, for example, cell proliferative disorder orpredisposition to cell proliferative disorder; metabolic malfunction ordisorder; immune malfunction, damage or disorder; CNS malfunction,damage or disease; symptoms of aggression or behavioral disturbance;clinical, psychological and social consequences of brain damage;psychotic disturbance and personality disorder; dementia or associatedsyndrome; cardiovascular disease, malfunction and damage; malfunction,damage or disease of the gastrointestinal tract; malfunction, damage ordisease of the respiratory system; lesion, inflammation, infection,immunity and/or convalescence; malfunction, damage or disease of thebody as an abnormality in the development process; malfunction, damageor disease of the skin, the muscles, the connective tissue or the bones;endocrine and metabolic malfunction, damage or disease; headache orsexual malfunction, and combinations thereof.

Abnormal methylation of CpG islands associated with tumor suppressorgenes can cause decreased gene expression. Increased methylation of suchregions can lead to progressive reduction of normal gene expressionresulting in the selection of a population of cells having a selectivegrowth advantage. Conversely, decreased methylation (hypomethylation) ofoncogenes can lead to modulation of normal gene expression resulting inthe selection of a population of cells having a selective growthadvantage.

Accordingly, in particular embodiments a disease or condition to beanalyzed with respect to methylation levels is cancer. Exemplary cancersthat can be evaluated using a method of the invention include, but arenot limited to cancer of the breast, prostate, lung, bronchus, colon,rectum, urinary bladder, kidney, renal pelvis, pancreas, oral cavity orpharynx (Head & Neck), ovary, thyroid, stomach, brain, esophagus, liver,intrahepatic bile duct, cervix, larynx, soft tissue such as heart,testis, gastro-intestinal stroma, pleura, small intestine, anus, analcanal and anorectum, vulva, gallbladder, bones, joints, hypopharynx, eyeor orbit, nose, nasal cavity, middle ear, nasopharynx, ureter,peritoneum, omentum, or mesentery. Other cancers that can be evaluatedinclude, for example, Chronic Myeloid Leukemia, Acute LymphocyticLeukemia, Malignant Mesothelioma, Acute Myeloid Leukemia, ChronicLymphocytic Leukemia, Multiple Myeloma, Gastrointestinal CarcinoidTumors, Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, Hodgkin Lymphoma or Melanomas of the skin.

With particular regard to cancer, changes in DNA methylation have beenrecognized as one of the most common molecular alterations in humanneoplasia. Hypermethylation of CpG islands located in the promoterregions of tumor suppressor genes is a well-established and commonmechanism for gene inactivation in cancer (Esteller, Oncogene 21(35):5427-40 (2002)). In contrast, a global hypomethylation of genomic DNA isobserved in tumor cells; and a correlation between hypomethylation andincreased gene expression has been reported for many oncogenes(Feinberg, Nature 301(5895): 89-92 (1983), Hanada, et al., Blood 82(6):1820-8 (1993)). Cancer diagnosis or prognosis can be made in a methodset forth herein based on the methylation state of particular sequenceregions of a gene including, but not limited to, the coding sequence,the 5′-regulatory regions, or other regulatory regions that influencetranscription efficiency.

The prognostic methods set forth herein are useful for determining if apatient is at risk for recurrence. Cancer recurrence is a concernrelating to a variety of types of cancer. The prognostic methods can beused to identify surgically treated patients likely to experience cancerrecurrence so that they can be offered additional therapeutic options,including preoperative or postoperative adjuncts such as chemotherapy,radiation, biological modifiers and other suitable therapies. Themethods are especially effective for determining the risk of metastasisin patients who demonstrate no measurable metastasis at the time ofexamination or surgery.

The prognostic methods also are useful for determining a proper courseof treatment for a patient having cancer. A course of treatment refersto the therapeutic measures taken for a patient after diagnosis or aftertreatment for cancer. For example, a determination of the likelihood forcancer recurrence, spread, or patient survival, can assist indetermining whether a more conservative or more radical approach totherapy should be taken, or whether treatment modalities should becombined. For example, when cancer recurrence is likely, it can beadvantageous to precede or follow surgical treatment with chemotherapy,radiation, immunotherapy, biological modifier therapy, gene therapy,vaccines, and the like, or adjust the span of time during which thepatient is treated.

A reference genomic DNA (for example, gDNA considered “normal”) and atest genomic DNA that are to be compared in a diagnostic or prognosticmethod, can be obtained from different individuals, from differenttissues, and/or from different cell types. In particular embodiments,the genomic DNA samples to be compared can be from the same individualbut from different tissues or different cell types, or from tissues orcell types that are differentially affected by a disease or condition.Similarly, the genomic DNA samples to be compared can be from the sametissue or the same cell type, wherein the cells or tissues aredifferentially affected by a disease or condition.

A reference genomic DNA, to which a test genomic DNA will be compared ina diagnostic or prognostic method, can be obtained from age-matchednormal classes of adjacent tissues, or with normal peripheral bloodlymphocytes. The reference gDNA can be obtained from non-tumorous cellsfrom the same tissue as the tissue of the neoplastic cells to be tested.The reference DNA can be obtained from in vitro cultured cells which canbe manipulated to simulate tumor cells, or can be manipulated in anyother manner which yields methylation levels which are indicative ofcancer or another condition of interest.

It is understood that a reference methylation level to which a testmethylation level is compared in a diagnostic or prognostic method willtypically correspond to the level of one or more methylated genomic CpGdinucleotide sequences present in a corresponding sample that allowscomparison to the desired phenotype. For example, in a diagnosticapplication a reference level can be based on a sample that is derivedfrom a cancer-free origin so as to allow comparison to the biologicaltest sample for purposes of diagnosis. In a method of staging a cancerit can be useful to apply in parallel a series of reference levels, eachbased on a sample that is derived from a cancer that has been classifiedbased on parameters established in the art, for example, phenotypic orcytological characteristics, as representing a particular cancer stageso as to allow comparison to the biological test sample for purposes ofstaging. In addition, progression of the course of a condition can bedetermined by determining the rate of change in the level or pattern ofmethylation of genomic CpG dinucleotide sequences by comparison toreference levels derived from reference samples that represent timepoints within an established progression rate. It is understood, thatthe user will be able to select the reference sample and establish thereference level based on the particular purpose of the comparison.

EQUIVALENTS

The foregoing written specification is considered to be sufficient toenable one skilled in the art to practice the present embodiments. Theforegoing description and Examples detail certain preferred embodimentsand describes the best mode contemplated by the inventors. It will beappreciated, however, that no matter how detailed the foregoing mayappear in text, the present embodiments may be practiced in many waysand the present embodiments should be construed in accordance with theappended claims and any equivalents thereof.

The term “comprising” is intended herein to be open-ended, including notonly the recited elements, but further encompassing any additionalelements.

What is claimed is:
 1. An isolated nucleic acid pair comprising: atemplate nucleic acid comprising a cytosine residue; a complementarycopy of said template nucleic acid having every cytosine replaced by abisulfite-resistant cytosine analog; and a tag capable of identifyingsaid template nucleic acid and said complementary copy of said templatenucleic acid as members of said nucleic acid pair, wherein said templatenucleic acid and said complementary copy of said template nucleic acidare coupled to said tag.
 2. The nucleic acid pair of claim 1, whereinsaid template nucleic acid is DNA.
 3. The nucleic acid pair of claim 1,wherein said template nucleic acid is single-stranded.
 4. The nucleicacid pair of claim 2, wherein said template nucleic acid issingle-stranded and said complementary copy is single-stranded.
 5. Thenucleic acid pair of claim 1, wherein the bisulfite-resistant cytosineanalog is selected from the group consisting of: 5-ethyl cytosine,5-methyl cytosine, 5-fluoro cytosine, 5-bromo cytosine, 5-iodo cytosine,5-chloro cytosine, 5-trifluoromethyl cytosine, and 5-aza cytosine. 6.The nucleic acid pair of claim 1, wherein the bisulfite-resistantcytosine analog is 5-methyl cytosine.
 7. The nucleic acid pair of claim4, wherein said tag is a molecule disposed between said template nucleicacid and said complementary copy.
 8. The nucleic acid pair of claim 5,wherein said molecule comprises an oligonucleotide comprising a hairpinloop.
 9. The nucleic acid pair of claim 4, wherein said tag comprises afirst and second oligonucleotide comprising an identical nucleotidesequence, wherein said first oligonucleotide is coupled to said templatenucleic acid and said second oligonucleotide is coupled to saidcomplementary copy.
 10. The nucleic acid pair of claim 4, wherein saidtag comprises a first and second oligonucleotide comprisingcomplementary nucleotide sequence, wherein said first oligonucleotide iscoupled to said template nucleic acid and said second oligonucleotide iscoupled to said complementary copy.
 11. An isolated vector comprisingthe nucleic acid pair of claim
 1. 12. A population of isolated nucleicacid pairs, comprising: template nucleic acids and complementary copiesof said template nucleic acids attached to each other as covalent pairsvia a nucleic acid loop, wherein said template nucleic acids eachcomprise at least one cytosine residue, wherein every cytosine of saidcomplementary copies is replaced by a bisulfite-resistant cytosineanalog; and wherein different nucleic acid pairs in said population havedifferent sequences for said template nucleic acids and the samesequence for said nucleic acid loop.
 13. The population of nucleic acidpairs of claim 12, wherein said template nucleic acids are DNA.
 14. Thepopulation of nucleic acid pairs of claim 12, wherein said templatenucleic acids are single-stranded.
 15. The population of nucleic acidpairs of claim 13, wherein said template nucleic acids aresingle-stranded and said complementary copies are single-stranded. 16.The population of nucleic acid pairs of claim 12, wherein thebisulfite-resistant cytosine analog is selected from the groupconsisting of: 5-ethyl cytosine, 5-methyl cytosine, 5-fluoro cytosine,5-bromo cytosine, 5-iodo cytosine, 5-chloro cytosine, 5-trifluoromethylcytosine, and 5-aza cytosine.
 17. The population of nucleic acid pairsof claim 12, wherein the bisulfite-resistant cytosine analog is 5-methylcytosine.
 18. An array comprising: a solid support with a plurality ofsites, a bisulfite-converted template nucleic acid, and a non-convertedcomplementary copy of said template nucleic acid, wherein said templatenucleic acid is coupled to at least one of said plurality of sites andsaid non-converted complementary copy is coupled to at least one of saidplurality of sites.
 19. The array of claim 18, wherein said templatenucleic acid is annealed to at least one of said plurality of sites andsaid non-converted complementary copy is annealed to at least one ofsaid plurality of sites.
 20. The array of claim 18, wherein saidtemplate nucleic acid and said non-converted complementary copy areannealed to the same site.